Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the frontline.

The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photos on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia.

The post included a message thanking the “dear mums” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons”. It said the gifts were the initiative of the women’s wing of the party.

Some online commentators called the gesture as “shameful” and “inappropriate”.

Russia is often accused of throwing its frontline soldiers into a “meat grinder” with scant regard for their lives.

The Russian word for meat grinder, myasorubka, has the same double meaning as in English.

It refers to a tactic in which small groups of soldiers are sent into attack, one after another, in waves, risking heavy losses, with the aim of eventually wearing out and overpowering Ukrainian troops.

The party’s local branch in the town of Polyarniye Zori defended itself against the online backlash, saying critics were making “callous and provocative interpretations” of its gifts.

The mayor, Maxim Chengayev, who took part in the handover of gifts, said that meat grinders were not originally intended to be included but “one woman asked for it and we of course could not say no”, United Russia said.

The local party later posted a video in which one of the soldiers’ mothers awkwardly thanked the party for the gifts and confirmed that she had asked for a meat grinder because she needed one.

Russia has rarely given any figures for its losses in Ukraine and the true toll is unknown, but independent media put it at many tens of thousands.

The Russian website Mediazona and the BBC’s Russian service said last month they had identified the names of 91,000 Russian soldiers killed, but added the actual toll was likely to be “considerably higher”.

At the end of 2024, the then US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, spoke of 700,000 Russian soldiers killed or wounded.

Ukraine has also suffered heavy losses, whose full extent is unclear.

The president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in February that more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and about 380,000 wounded. Media reports based on western sources have given estimated Ukrainian military death tolls ranging from 50,000 to 100,000.