Following the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, 14-year-old Valery “kept going on about this Ukraine,” his grandmother recollects.
“He expressed his opposition to the war,” she sighs. “He asked, ‘Why did we attack our brothers?’ and things like that. And what could I say? I replied, ‘It’s not for you and me to say!’ How would we know? Who are we? And we ceased discussing this subject.