Moscow [Russia], December 23: Schoolchildren raise money for socks, mothers buy winter clothes and sleeping bags, community groups collect donations for body armor.
Russian citizens are crowdfunding to equip soldiers deployed to Ukraine as winter closes in on the battlefield. Troops have complained they are short of basic equipment - and the message has reached President Vladimir Putin.
Putin and other Russian officials have said that teething problems with supplying newly mobilized troops sent to Ukraine are being overcome, partly by a shake-up in supply chains. But the Kremlin has also stepped up pressure on those who dare to complain - and is increasingly framing the invasion of Ukraine as a patriotic and almost existential cause.
On Wednesday, Putin said that mobilization efforts must be modernized after the partial draft in the fall revealed issues.
"The partial mobilization carried out revealed certain problems, it is well known to everyone, and should be promptly addressed," he said during a meeting with Russian defense chiefs.
Putin himself held a well-choreographed meeting with the families of soldiers at the Kremlin at the end of November, two months after the much-criticized partial mobilization. But those attending were carefully selected for their supportive tone.
Local campaigns to raise funds for soldiers are underway in both Russia and the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine. One dubbed "Together is Warmer" has raised 3 million rubles (about $45,000) to provide basic equipment and clothing for Russian soldiers.
One Telegram channel detailed last month how a soldier with the call-sign Kaluga in the DPR's 6th Motorized Rifles had appealed for help for his company of 74 men.
"When we were already collecting orders and preparing for departure, people came to our warehouse in a row, carrying boxes and packages with the words: 'This is for Kaluga from the 6th motorized rifle!' Medicines, clothes, boots and even two wheelchairs, which the guys took to the local hospital."
The channel listed what else they'd bought: "Uniforms, thermal underwear, socks, hats, balaclavas, sweaters, berets, a generator, power banks."
A Telegram channel in the Russian republic of Buryatia, which provides more than its share of recruits, stated: "From the very beginning of the partial mobilization of the soldiers of the second army of the world for the war, they were equipped by the people."
In the Chuvashia region, where some of the mobilized staged protests in the fall, Telegram channels said that families had gone into debt buying equipment. "From officials there all they got was parting words and three sacks of potatoes," one said.
Similarly, a Telegram channel in Altai in southern Siberia posted: "Winter has almost arrived, which means it's time to collect what is warmer for the mobilized. Volunteers in the Altai Territory announced the collection of felt boots, woollen sweaters, mittens and scarves to be sent to the front."
In Tambov, central Russia, 8th grade schoolchildren also raised money for socks for the troops.
Many appeals focus on preventing hypothermia among soldiers fighting without adequate clothing and shelter in sub-zero temperatures. But some also try to source thermal imagery devices, two-way radios, body armor and even drones.
One Telegram channel posted: "We continue collecting for bulletproof vests," saying that it had tested Chinese-made vests. "We want to purchase up to 50 sets. We need to raise 1 million rubles."
Maxim Samorukov, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine last week: "Ordinary Russians are expected to help their friends and relatives who have had the misfortune of being drafted. Indeed, they have little option but to cover the deficiencies in state provisions out of their own pockets simply to protect their loved ones."
Source: Fijian Broadcasting Coperation