Putin Awards Russian Officials With Multimillion Apartments While Soldiers Struggle In Ukraine War: Report

Russian President Vladimir Putin is awarding Kremlin officials with multi-million apartments even as military soldiers struggle with a lack of supplies to use in the war in Ukraine, according to a report.

For instance, Nikolai Pankov, who has served as Russia's deputy defense minister for nearly two decades, registered several properties in the name of his children, including his daughter Maria's four-room apartment in the "House of the Presidential Property Management Directorate" worth 70 million rubles ($900,000).

The apartment, which was given to Pankov by the Kremlin, could pay for approximately six "coffin compensations" to families who lost loved ones in the war in Ukraine, as per an analysis by the independent online newspaper The Insider.

Last summer, the Kremlin also gave a 141-meter apartment near the Prospekt Vernadskogo metro station to Viktor Goremykin, who had recently assumed the role of the head of the Main Military and Political Directorate of the Armed Forces. His apartment, worth around 50 million rubles ($649,000), can pay for up to four "coffin compensations" that costs 12 million rubles ($155,800) each, the report said.

Apart from the 141-meter apartment, Goremykin also owns another property valued at over 30 million rubles ($389,700) in the Coliseum housing complex. However, that property is registered under Dmitry Goremykin, his son.

Pavel Popov, deputy head of the Ministry of Defense and founder of Russia's National Defense Control Center (NDCC), was awarded by the ministry with an apartment that costs over 70 million rubles ($909,300) in the Smolenskaya Zastava housing complex in Moscow. The apartment's cost is enough to cover six coffin compensations.

The Kremlin has awarded more properties to other Russian officials, many of which are millions of rubles worth. However, soldiers deployed to the frontline in the war in Ukraine are still struggling to amass supplies and weapons to use in the conflict, leaving Russia's troops to plead to Putin for help.

"As of today, we still have not received weapons and ammo," a soldier from the 580th Separate howitzer Artillery Division from Serpukhov stationed in Donetsk Oblast said in a video. "We ask that our guys be recalled from this assault as they do not possess the necessary training or experience. Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, we are asking you to sort out this situation."

Many similar appeals have begun appearing on Russian Telegram channels wherein conscripts are complaining about being sent to combat zones as cannon fodder. Recruits from at least 16 regions across Russia have also made pleas to Putin every month, The Washington Post reported, citing Russian media outlet Vyorstka.