‘Congratulations. Thank you so much for your son,’ says Sochi’s mayor, decorating the parents of a Russian soldier killed in Ukraine

Filed 1h ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Comic Plodding

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Bill Nye (?) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Sochi Mayor Andrei Proshunin presented the Order of Courage to the parents of Aik Roganyan, a local man killed fighting in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in a ceremony he posted to his own Telegram channel.

Standing in front of arrayed flags, Proshunin told the couple the administration would always support them, then shook the father's hand and thanked him for his son.

Independent outlet Mediazona lists Roganyan as born in 2001 and killed in February 2024 at age 22; an obituary says he graduated early from a Moscow military academy 'due to a shortage of officers' before being sent to command troops on the front.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Handing a medal to parents and calling their son's death a gift is the kind of gesture that only works if nobody asks why a 22-year-old was commanding troops after an accelerated graduation driven by officer shortages. The state gets the ceremony; the family gets the folded flag and the Telegram clip. Note who is not in frame: whoever decided the shortage needed filling with cadets.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Comic Plodding · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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