Ukrainians used to spit at deserters... now they sympathise with them

It must feel strange to be hiding from your own army but that’s exactly what Yuri is doing. Ever since he escaped from his Ukrainian barracks late one night, he has been staying with friends – too scared to go back to his family or out in public.

‘I just pray that ends this war soon,’ he tells me over the encrypted Signal messaging app. ‘Make great again!’

His military career began when he was seized by one of the army’s now ubiquitous press gangs as he visited his local market one Saturday.

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