KHERSON, Ukraine — Several weeks before Russian troops captured the provincial capital of Kherson, Ludmila Taranov was scrolling through an online dating site, looking for someone to have coffee with — someone to take her mind off her troubles.
Taranov, 31, was teaching disabled children at a public school, and, with a master's degree in English and Russian, she also taught English on the side. Divorced, she lived with her mother, her sister and brother-in-law, and their infant son. When she wasn't at school, she was taking care of her mother, who'd been ill.
Taranov needed to get out of the house.
