Global in Ukraine Exclusive: Interview with family of Russian soldier killed in Ukraine
Global News
Who are the Russian soldiers dying in Ukraine?
On the morning of April 29, Galena Pankina answered the phone at her home in Baklashi, a village in central Russia, and was told her son had died in Ukraine.
Danil Pankin was a reconnaissance officer in a Russian army motorized-rifle battalion who was sent on President Vladimir Putin’s disastrous invasion.
He didn’t even make it to his 20th birthday before a Ukrainian tank ended his life. He was posthumously awarded the Russian Order of Courage.
“He proposed to his girlfriend before he left for Ukraine,” Galena said. “Our family was going to get even bigger.”
“But he never made it home.”
Nor have thousands of other Russian soldiers, although Moscow has tightly suppressed reporting of its wartime losses since the invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24.
The numbers range from Russia’s acknowledged loss of just over 1,000 to Ukraine’s equally unverifiable tally of 35,000. In April, the U.K. estimated 15,000 dead.
The bodies left behind are collected by J9, a group of Ukrainian military and civilian volunteers. They are identified for return to Russia.