With photo of rifle grenades, the politician from Murmansk announces death of military husband in Ukraine

The announcement made on the 11th of July comes along with a photo of two rifle grenades with the inscriptions “from Maria” and “from Timokha,” apparently referring to herself and her son and meant to be shot by deceased husband Sergei at Ukrainians on occupied territory.

Maria Serebrenikova is local politician for Putin’s United Russia party in Polyarnye Zori, the town located in the central part of the Kola Peninsula.

The high-profile politician that is a leading representative of the local town council openly shares photos and information about her husband Sergei Drozdov at her VK page.

One of the posts shows Drozdov firing a machine gun against Ukrainian positions.

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Apparently, Drozdov was killed shortly after he returned to Ukraine after a leave in the Kola Peninsula. Maria Serebrenikova posted photos of him leaving by train on the 8th of July, and on the 11th of July he was reported killed.

Sergei Drozdov was senior lieutenant and voluntarily signed up for service in Ukraine. He served in the 17th platoon of BARS, the reservist forces that are subordinated the Ministry of Defence. On his VK page, Drozdov shows off with weaponry and military gear on occupied land.

“The victory will be our,” the warrior highlighted on top the page.

The death of Drozdev has attracted attention in the political establishment of the far northern region. Governor Andrei Chibis has posted a photo of the killed soldier on his social media pages and called him a “true patriot devoted to his homeland.”

“They displayed decisiveness and bravery, [and] protected the most valuable of all - their families, and put at risk the most precious - their own lives,” Chibis writes about Drozdev and fellow soldier Aleksandr Ivanov.

Maria Serebrenikova has gotten hundreds of condolences from social media followers. Among them is Yevgeny Nikora, the Deputy Speaker in the Murmansk regional Duma.

In his message to the widow, Nikora even posts a prayer in the old Church Slavonic language.

“Accept with love your slave Sergei, who fought for our prosperity, for our peace and calm, […] and bless all the fallen Orthodox warriors with your grace […],” parts of the prayer reads.

Nikora and Serebrenikova are old acquaintances from Polyarny Zori where both have worked in the Kola Nuclear Power Station.

Yevgeny Nikora has built his political career on his close relationship with Rosatom and its Kola NPP.

Serebrenikova and her husband come from Afrikanda, the small town located few kilometres from Polyarnye Zori. The town that has a population of about 1,500 used to house a powerful air force unit. Today, the abandoned military base could be site for a big dig of titanium and rare earth metals.

Drozdov is not the only soldier from Afrikanda that is killed in Ukraine. Only few days ahead of Drozdov’s death, the local authorities announced that also fellow townsman Anatoly Yakovlev had been killed in the war.

It is not clear how many soldiers from the Kola Peninsula that have been killed in Ukraine. But the Barents Observer has the names of at least 111 men killed since the start of the war. Some of them are listed and displayed in slideshows.