The parents revealed they received “coffin money” after their son Alexi died fighting in Ukraine. They bought a white Lada which Alexi “dreamt of”. A Rossiya 1 reporter said: “Like his grandfathers and great-grandfathers he fought against fascism.”
The father added: “In memory of our son we bought a nice new car.”
The reporter continued: “The new Lada was bought with what people call ‘coffin money’.
“But what’s officially a ‘lump sum allowance for the family of the deceased’.
“His father says that Alexi dreamt of having a white car, just like this one.
“Its first trip is to the cemetery.”
READ MORE: Russia issues ‘doomsday’ threat to Ukraine over Crimea
It comes as Russian forces kept up their bombardment of cities across Ukraine, with intense shelling of Sumy in the north, cluster bombs targeting Mykolaiv, and a missile strike in Odesa in the south, authorities said on Tuesday.
After failing to capture the capital Kyiv at the outset of the invasion on Feb 24, Russia has shifted to a campaign of devastating bombardments to cement and extend its control of Ukraine’s south and east.
Ukraine says Russian forces have intensified long-distance strikes on targets far from the front, killing large numbers of civilians. Moscow says it is hitting military targets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia had fired more than 3,000 cruise missiles and uncountable artillery shells during the five-month conflict.
Russia’s Gazprom, which operates the pipeline, has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of “extraordinary” circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the West.
In Odesa, a Russian missile strike injured at least four people, burned houses to the ground, and set other homes on fire, Oleksii Matsulevych, a spokesman for the regional administration, said on his Telegram channel.
Russian forces targeted Mykolaiv with cluster shells Monday, injuring at least two people and damaging windows and roofs of private houses, the Ukrainian city’s mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said in a social media post.
More than 150 mines and shells had been fired on the Sumy region, Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the head of the Sumy regional military administration, said on Telegram.