"There Will Be A Revolt": The Kremlin Is On Edge Over The Appeal By The Mother Of A Fallen Soldier

• 13.09.2026, 13:58

The woman recorded another video.

In Russia’s Chelyabinsk Region, FSB officers visited the mother of a soldier who died in Ukraine, Tatyana Sterkhova, after she recorded a video message to Vladimir Putin in which she predicted a “popular uprising” against him. The woman recounted this on September 9. “I went on TikTok and saw so many videos from retirees, veterans, and ordinary workers directed at our president, saying he was a ‘disgrace to Russia.’ I wonder, did the FSB visit everyone, or just me? A mother who spoke out in favor of ending the war,” she stated.

Sterkhova’s 19-year-old son, Semyon, was killed on the front lines two weeks after enlisting. The woman claimed that she waited a year and eight months for his body, which was ultimately “brought back without a head.” She also said she could not receive the 60,000 in compensation for her son’s death because the military registration and enlistment office required the original certificate, which had previously been taken to issue the death certificate. Sterkhova called the payment “a pittance for a coffin” and claimed that the authorities had “taken advantage of the people.”

“Do you want a civil war? You’ll probably get one soon enough,” she warned. In a new video, Sterkhova stated that she would be “understood by those mothers whose sons died in the war for ‘nothing.’ ‘And they go there simply out of desperation, because it’s impossible to take out a loan—the interest rates are outrageous. It’s also impossible to earn enough to buy an apartment on our salaries. Because right now you go to a store and walk out without buying anything for a thousand… Or maybe we shouldn’t send the FSB to a grief-stricken mother? Maybe we should think about it?” the woman concluded.

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia’s total losses have amounted to 1.5 million military personnel, a third of whom—or 500,000— — killed, the Chief of the General Staff and Commander of the British Armed Forces Richard Naiton stated in September. According to him, Putin’s forces suffered their heaviest losses beginning in early 2023, when a war of attrition began: during that time, according to Naughton’s estimates, they were able to capture only 2% of Ukrainian territory.