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 paint a vivid picture of the Russian war operation and its corruption, chaos and brutality.
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Hi.
My name is Sarah Topol, and I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times magazine.
Two and a half years ago, in the middle of the night, russian soldiers invaded Ukraine.
Ukrainian military casualties are a closely guarded secret, but at least 31,000 ukrainian soldiers have been killed since then, although that is definitely an undercount.
And according to british intelligence, more than half a million russian soldiers have been killed or wounded.
Just who are these soldiers fighting for?
President Vladimir Putin's ambition.
How did they explain their involvement in this war?
And for the story you'll be hearing a I set out to write about the russian military and meet as many service members as I could.
I talked to 18 soldiers and officers who fled the war at the risk of retribution by the russian regime.
And what I learned was that a lot of these men had families and partners who followed them into exile, into these terrifying and dangerous lives.
And so I found myself writing not just about Russia on the front lines, but about Russia at home.