In “The Deserter,” Sarah A. Topol reports the story of Ivan, a captain in the Russian Army who fought in Ukraine and then ultimately fled the war and his country with his wife, Anna. Topol spoke to 18 deserters while reporting in eight countries across four continents over the last year and a half; their experiences helped inform a vivid picture of the Russian war operation and its corruption, chaos and brutality.
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Part four the long escape the russian evacuation vehicle crashed through the wreckage of the forest, passing the upturned, splintered poplar trees and cratered roads.
The men, riding on top wherever they could find space to cling, could barely hang on, moaning.
Ivan knew he needed a plan urgently.
Otherwise they would send him back into battle right away.
Whether it had been writing itself through.
His mind all along, or whether he thought of it on the spot, he would never know.
But the answer was self evident.
He needed to insist on surgery for his back.
Years earlier, Ivan was holding Sascha in his arms when he fell down hard.
Pain shot up his leg and back.
It was a herniated disk.
Ivan began trying to remember how Roman limped when he came back from the SVO so he could replicate it.
He decided that his gait should be more laborious.
He needed to really wince when he put weight on his foot when the vehicle pulled up to a field hospital.