On 7 November, Russian soldiers’ wives held their first public protest in Moscow since the Ukraine invasion’s outset, calling for the rotation of troops from prolonged frontline service, the British Defense Ministry highlighted in its intelligence update published on 20 November.

The ministry tweeted:

• On 7 November 2023, wives of deployed Russian soldiers conducted what was probably the first public street protest in Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine. The protestors gathered in the central Teatralnya Square and unfurled banners demanding the rotation of their partners away from the frontline.
• Since February 2022, social media has provided daily examples of Russian wives and mothers making online appeals protesting against the conditions of their loved ones’ service. However, Russia’s draconian legislation has so far prevented troops’ relatives from coalescing into an influential lobbying force, as soldiers’ mothers did during the Afghan-Soviet War of the 1980s.
• Police broke up the Teatralnya Square protest within minutes. However, the protestors’ immediate demand is notable. The apparently indefinitely extended combat deployments of personnel without rotation is increasingly seen as unsustainable by both the troops themselves and by their relatives.

According to the Russian Telegram channel Vazhnye Istorii, some 30 relatives of mobilized soldiers protested for about 5 minutes during a communist rally commemorating the 106th anniversary of the October Communist revolution.

Read also:

• Ukraine MoD: Only 7% are locals in Russian “volunteer units” formed in occupied areas
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• Ukraine intel: Russia has over 400,000 troops deployed in Ukraine
• Ukrainian intel: Russia using coercion to mobilize 20k people a month
• British intel: Prolonged deployment in Ukraine takes a toll on Russian troop morale