Please Spare Me Your Talk of Bravery

Ms. Synenko is a writer from Odesa, Ukraine.

A friend of mine is a draft dodger. Everything he does is governed by the unspoken rules of the nationwide hide-and-seek that is playing out between recruitment squads roaming the streets of Ukrainian cities and some two million men wanted for draft evasion.

Buying groceries can be a life-or-death decision. He never steps outside without checking messaging apps where men share information about checkpoints and recruitment raids in our home city, Odesa. These channels count their........

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