Days after the cruiser "Moskva" sank in the Black Sea, Julia Civova was desperately looking for information about her son Andrej, the Guardian writes.
Like hundreds of other Russian families who had family members on the "Moskva", she was not told whether he survived after this cruiser sank, as claimed by the Ukrainian side after its "Neptune" missile attacks.
Nevertheless, on Monday morning, Julia received a call from the Russian Ministry of Defense - her son was dead.
"He was only 19 years old, he was a conscript," said a tearful Civova while talking on the phone. "They didn't tell me anything else, no information about when the funeral will be."
Other family members of sailors who served on the Moskva are also demanding answers, as the ministry tries to suppress information about what happened to the ship and its estimated 510-member crew.
"I'm sure he's not the only one who died," added Civova.
The total number of dead, wounded and missing remains a state secret, writes the Guardian. Andrej's death, which was not previously reported, is only the second confirmed from this warship. Three more families have come forward and confirmed that they cannot find their sons who served on the ship.
Media reports suggest the death toll in this attack will be far higher, and efforts to cover up the death toll have prompted comparisons with the Kursk submarine incident that killed 118 sailors and dealt a blow to then-young President Vladimir Putin in 2000. .
"This regime has never been very transparent about casualties," said Alexander Gabuyev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center, pointing to Russian military operations in Ukraine and Syria or investigations into the Beslan attacks and during the Moscow Theater hostage crisis.
"This is not something new or surprising," Gabuyev added.
The latest information about the dead young sailors will also reignite scrutiny of the Russian government's use of conscripts in combat, which Putin explicitly denied was the case at the start of the war.
The Ministry of Defense was forced to admit it had deployed conscripts after some were captured during the first weeks of the war in Ukraine and then claimed it would not use them again.
However, several parents of Moskva crew members told the Guardian that their sons on board were indeed conscripts, not professional contract soldiers.
"Among the missing in action is a recruit who should not be part of active combat," wrote Dmitrij Škrebec, father of young Yegor who was a cook on the ship.
"How can you go missing in action in the middle of the open sea," he wondered.
Photos and video purportedly showing the Moskva just before it sank emerged on Monday - nearly four days after it was hit.
Pictures showed that lifeboats were deployed, indicating that the order to abandon ship had probably been given, and families of several crew members said they were able to find their family members alive.
Eskender Djeparov said he recognized Akbar's brother in a video released by the Ministry of Defense showing sailors from the "Moscow" meeting with the high admiral in Sevastopol after the ship sank.
"We were very happy when we saw him on video in Sevastopol," said Djeparov. "The day after the tragedy, he called our mother and said he was alive and well. That we shouldn't worry about him. He didn't tell us what happened, he doesn't say much. He calls us from different numbers. He is a recruit, he started last July. He definitely never signed the contract."
Many others, however, were less fortunate. Škrebec was one of the first to go public seeking answers as to why his son was sent to war.
"They said that the entire crew was evacuated. That's a lie! A cruel and cynical lie," Škrebec said.
His wife Irina told the independent Russian website "Insajder" that they saw about 200 injured sailors in the military hospital in Crimea while they were looking for their son.
"There were only 200 people, and there were more than 500 on the cruise ship. Where were the others? We searched in Krasnodar and everywhere, we called every place, but we couldn't find him," said Irina.
Other families have reached out to the Škrebecs in hopes of getting more information.
"We have been contacted by three families from Yalta, Alupka and St. Petersburg, whose children are also missing, also conscripts," her husband wrote, adding that they had submitted a written request to the local conscription office for more information.
Other parents were clearly afraid to speak up. Uljana Tarasova from Saint Petersburg wrote on social networks.
"My son, Mark Tarasov is missing in action on the cruiser Moskva."
A few hours later, her post disappeared, the Guardian notes.
Others who spoke to Russian media requested anonymity for fear of government retaliation.
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