"There are many lies,' Putin tells gathering of soldiers' mothers chosen by Kremlin

Vladimir Putin has met a handpicked group of mothers of soldiers fighting in Ukraine in a carefully staged move intended to calm public anger over mobilisation.

While dozens of ordinary mothers have gone public saying they were snubbed by the Kremlin, Putin sat down with a former government official, the mother of a senior military and police official from Chechnya, and other women active in pro-war organisations financed by the state.

The Guardian has managed to confirm the identifies of at least three of the women who met Putin yesterday in a highly publicised meeting at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo on the outskirts of Moscow.

None of the women are critical of the war against Ukraine and several have publicly sought to quell fears about the poor treatment, inadequate training, and other dangers faced by Russian troops being mustered to be sent to the front. Yet the very fact of the meeting showed that the Kremlin is worried about the perception of its mobilisation at home.

"It is clear that life is more complicated and diverse than what is shown on TV screens or even on the internet you can't trust anything there at all, there are a lot of all sorts of fakes, deception, lies," Putin told the women, who were seated around a large, oval table. "This is why we have gathered with you, that's why I proposed this meeting, because I wanted to listen to you first-hand."

One of the women sitting next to Putin was Olesya Shigina, an ultra-conservative Russian poet, film-maker and activist who recently travelled to the Donbas region to direct a pro-war film featuring Russian troops.

In a radio interview last month on the Russian Vesti FM radio station, Shigina dismissed reports of mounting anger among Russian conscripts over poor equipment and a lack of basic training. "At the front, no one is angry at the government... They have one goal there, and that is to win."