News
Parents of schoolchildren in Orenburg, a city near the border with Kazakhstan, are being forced to buy clothes, medicine, and household items for the Russian military in Ukraine, regional outlet 7×7 reported on October 17.
A list of required items was circulated among the city’s educational institutions by the local “Women’s Council.” Parents are being asked to buy underwear, socks, warm clothes, shoes, bandages, plasters, power banks, toilet paper, and other supplies for the Russian army. The Women's Council has also asked both parents and children to add drawings and letters “with kind, warm words” in the supply boxes.
A 7×7 reader told the outlet that those who refuse to buy these items for the military are “shamed” – parents and students are being told that they “don’t love their motherland and don’t want to help the army.”
Since the start of the war, state institutions in Russia have regularly held donation rallies of money or supplies for the Russian military in Ukraine. For example, funds for the purchase of military equipment were rounded up in the “Vista” children's club in Volgograd – parents were then asked to raise close to $5,000 for night vision devices and a diesel heater.