A Russian town counts the cost of Vladimir Putin’s war

FIVE FRESHHIMARSDNA graves break through the tranquil snow covering Novokuybyshevsk’s municipal graveyard. “Denis, my son!” a woman wails. Not long ago, 27-year-old Denis was a young dad and an engineer at the local oil refinery. In September he was drafted by the Russian army. By December he was in Ukraine. His military career lasted all of six days: he was stationed at the now infamous when a salvo of missiles struck it on New Year’s Eve. His mother feels fortunate to have received his body whole. Other families’ sons could be identified only by . “I told him don’t go, don’t go. But he was insistent. He said he couldn’t run away.”