A social media storm erupted in Russia, with fierce public criticism directed at senior officials from the ruling party after they chose to gift bereaved mothers meat grinders in honor of International Women's Day.
The United Russia party's northern Murmansk branch posted images on social media showing smiling officials visiting bereaved mothers, presenting them with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women's Day on Saturday, a holiday widely observed across Russia.
The post included a message thanking the "dear mothers" for their "strength of spirit and the love they invested in raising their sons." It stated that the gifts were an initiative of the party's women's wing.
"Meat grinder" - or myasorubka in Russian - is a term used to describe the Russian military's high-casualty attack tactics in Ukraine, where groups of soldiers are sent to probe enemy defenses, often without support or artillery cover. The casualty rate for these units sometimes exceeds 90 percent. New recruits assigned to such offensives are often referred to as "meat," underscoring the cynicism and brutality of Russia's war in Ukraine, even toward its own citizens.
The ruling party quickly pushed back against the online backlash. The party's branch in the town of Polyarny Zory, where the grinders were distributed, issued a statement condemning what it called the "frivolous and provocative interpretation of the gifts."
The town's mayor, Maksim Cherniga, who personally took part in distributing the controversial gifts, claimed that the meat grinders had not originally been planned as presents but were included "because one of the dear mothers specifically requested one."
Hundreds of thousands killed and wounded
Last month, the Russian news outlet Mediazona and the Russian service of the BBC reported that they had identified the names of 91,000 Russian soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine. However, they noted that the true death toll could be "significantly higher."
By the end of 2024, then-US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin estimated that 700,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or wounded. Ukraine has also suffered heavy losses, though the full extent remains unclear.
