‘It’s a disgrace not to go to war’: muted Russian protest against Ukraine conflict

A cemetery in Nikolayevka with the graves of volunteer fighters from the Samara region who have been killed during the war in Ukraine. Photograph: Max Avdeev/The Guardian

Fifteen minutes before midnight, a young Russian conscript named Danila, who had been sent to fight in Ukraine, picked up his phone to write a message to his family and friends back home in a small town in the Samara region. It was 31 December.

“We congratulated each other, wished each other the best for the new year, and then he was gone,” said a close friend who wrote with him that night.