The war has become impossible to ignore in Belgorod, southern Russia, just a few kilometres from the border with Ukraine. Russian soldiers retreating from the Ukrainian counterattack roam the streets. Air defences boom out several times a day. The city is once again filled with refugees. And, at the border, Russian and Ukrainian soldiers stand within sight of each other.
Three Russian soldiers from Ossetia wandered the unfamiliar streets past the grand Transfiguration Cathedral one evening. They seemed unsteady on their feet, perhaps drunk or tired, and were looking for a place to eat. Since February, they said, they have fought in Ukraine as part of the invasion force. They were stationed in the village of Velyki Prokhody, just north of Kharkiv, when the urgent signal came to flee back to Russia last week.
“What can we say? An order is
