2/ A report by Radio Free Europe highlights the experiences of mobilised Russians fighting in Ukraine through the accounts of two families, one from north-west Russia and the other from the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals at the far eastern edge of Europe.
Tatyana is the wife of a contract soldier named Sergei, who went to war voluntarily last July. She says that most Russian soldiers are, like her husband, simply looking to earn money to support their families and pay off their mortgages.