“Nothing can replace the loss of a son”, he said in his opening remarks, before the footage on state TV was cut.

Reports that the mothers were carefully picked for the conference have gone unremarked by the Kremlin.

The backlash against Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been mounting.

Mothers of serving soldiers are openly complaining about the fact that their boys are being sent into fight with inadequate equipment and training, particularly as winter approaches.

Following a number of significant military defeats in recent months, some have also claimed that the Russian military is using civilians who were forcibly mobilized as “cannon fodder.”

In a rare acknowledgment, the Kremlin acknowledged that its efforts to mobilize army reservists had been flawed in September.

The most senior US general, Mark Milley, estimated earlier this month that since the war started on February 24, around 100,000 Russian and 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or injured.

Mr. Putin was pictured seated at a huge table with a group of 17 mothers at the meeting on Friday at his state estate outside of Moscow. Some of them donned mourning accessories like dark headscarves.

Because it can be difficult to find impartial news in Russia, some people utilize virtual private networks (VPNs) to get around the slanted state-run media coverage.

On Friday, President Putin added that he had wished to speak with the moms in order to learn directly from them about the circumstances on the ground.

And he said that on occasion, he was speaking to Russian soldiers on the field and referring to them as “heroes.”

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