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A Russian woman died of a heart attack after being told her husband died in Ukraine. But he may still be alive.

Source: Meduza

A woman from Russia’s Sverdlovsk region recently died of a heart attack after being told that her husband, who was drafted into the Russian army, died in Ukraine, the regional outlet E1.ru reported. Her husband’s death has not been independently verified.

The original news story gave the woman’s name as Nadezhda and her husband’s name as Gennady but did not include last names. Journalists at 7x7 used photos on social media to identify the woman as 42-year-old Nadezhda Makarova.

“The commander who’s with him in the special military operation zone told her [in a WhatsApp message] that Gennady had died. She had a heart attack. I took her to the hospital, and doctors did surgery, but they weren’t able to save her,” Makarova’s sister, Natalia, told E1.ru. The family buried Makarova on January 31.

Outside of the WhatsApp messages purportedly from Gennady’s commander, journalists have not seen evidence of his death. “Gennady was mobilized, and after Nadezhda’s death, I got a call from the military commissar who sent him to the special military operation, and he was indignant, [asking] why we decided that Gennady is dead. There’s no such information, [he said]. No official data,” Natalia said.

Natalia added that she still has hope that Gennady might be alive. “I don’t believe that he’s died, that the children are left with no parents,” she told journalists. She said her sister and Gennady had three children: a 20-year-old daughter, a nine-year-old son, and a five-year-old son. The children are currently living with their aunt, who said child protective services have already visited her.

Maxim Ivanov, a federal lawmaker from the Sverdlovsk region, told E1.ru that he would personally look into the situation and find out whether Gennady is alive.