Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18

Freed Ukrainian Medic Contacts 20-Year-Old Son in Occupied Area as She Fears Russian Conscription

Updated

Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18

Freed Ukrainian Medic Contacts 20-Year-Old Son in Occupied Area as She Fears Russian Conscription

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 18

Liliia Prutian, 55, finally reached her 20-year-old son by phone after three years apart, speaking cautiously because he remains in their village under Russian occupation.
Prutian fears Dima Zahrebaiev could be forced into the Russian army, making her effort to get him out both urgent and dangerous.
Her own ordeal shapes that urgency: Russian forces captured the military medic in 2022 and held her for two and a half years before her release.
The family’s separation reflects a wider strain across the roughly 20% of Ukraine controlled by Russia, where occupation has split households and hardened Kyiv’s resistance to ceding land in peace talks.

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Could the agonizing separation of millions of trapped families ultimately force Kyiv to make unthinkable territorial sacrifices for peace?

Will a former captive's worst fear materialize as her trapped son faces forced conscription by the very forces that imprisoned her?

Beyond the battlefield, is the silent weaponization of divided families and trapped civilians the true strategy rewriting Ukraine's future?

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