Our friends, Marina and Ira, have family in Russia. Not long after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, they spoke with those family members. Those in Russia expressed their disgust that people in Ukraine were eating children. Marina and Ira’s reaction was naturally surprise and horror. In the early days of the war, back in 2014, state-controlled Russian news agencies had started to run a story about a young boy that had been crucified in Ukraine’s eastern territories. The narrative was that this was what Ukrainians were doing to Russian speakers. It didn’t take long for the story to be debunked. But this was primarily outside of Russia, most people within Russia kept hearing this story, and stories like it. Over the years, the stories grew to the point where Russian citizens were hearing that Ukrainians were regularly eating babies. This is why Marina and Ira were having this conversation. They told their relatives that what they had heard was wrong. Peo
How war and propaganda have been affecting families across Ukraine, Russia and the world. On February 24 th , 2022, Anya, like millions of Ukrainians, was woken up at 5 o’clock in the morning by the sounds and reverberations of missiles striking in and around Kyiv (where she lived) and all over the country. She spent that morning rounding up her very large family, including a 13 year old son who was at a sleepover more 30 minutes from their home. Imagine being separated from one of your children in a situation like that. They did get all of their family (18 people) together, but it was a lot of work and stress. While getting everyone together Anya and her family had to pack up not knowing how long they would be gone. Then, they joined millions of people on the road who were heading West. It took them 3 days to make a trip that would typically take 7-9 hours. As Anya sat in the car, she started thinking about her parents. Anya's mom was in one of the to