Russia is forcing Ukrainian conscripts into battle

kept to himself. The 18-year-old engineering student from Donetsk, a city in eastern Ukraine controlled since 2014 by Kremlin-backed separatists, had no patience for politics. “We were not for Russia, and we were not for Ukraine,” says his mother, Natalya. “We were never interested in the war.” Yet on February 23rd—the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—officials from an army recruitment centre turned up at Sasha’s university. They ordered him to report for duty the next day.Natalya was told that her son would take part in exercises, then return home. In fact Sasha was sent to the front, near Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city that has been devastated by Russian attacks. Every few days Sasha would call his mother to say he was okay. The last such call came at the start of April. The next came from a prison camp in western Ukraine. Sasha had been captured.