On the same day Russia’s President Vladimir Putin announced his country had launched an offensive against Ukraine, Sergei* boarded a western-bound plane and flew out of his native Saint Petersburg. Three weeks into the war, Sergei, along with tens of thousands of his countrymen, is getting used to the idea that he may never go home again. “I hate this war,” he told FRANCE 24.
Sergei left his home – and his life – in Saint Petersburg on February 24. “I literally left on the first day of the war,” he told FRANCE 24 in English via an encrypted messaging service from a location he said would probably be wiser to keep undisclosed for the time being. “Because the [Putin] regime is changing things every hour,” he said, pointing to the series of laws the Russian Duma is currently pushing through in order to quash any dissenting voices.
