Europeans should welcome Russian draft-dodgers

war is, first and foremost, a war against the Ukrainian people, who are being bombed, robbed, raped and killed by his army. But it is also a war against millions of Russians, whose lives and futures their president is willing to sacrifice in pursuit of his imperial fantasies. Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have already died in battle. Having suffered a series of in Ukraine, Mr Putin plans to throw yet more young men and women into the furnace. His has caused shock and panic in Russia. Mr Putin calls it “partial mobilisation”, but there appears to be no legal limit to the number of people he can force to go and fight. This has shattered the illusion among Russians that they could , or support it passively without disruption to their daily lives.