"I used to have complete faith in our country," says Lyubov. The last time she spoke to her mother was a day after Ukrainian forces broke into Russia's Kursk region more than two years ago.
Now she feels "resentful towards the [Russian] state", in a country where most people avoid criticising the full-scale invasion unleashed on Ukraine in February 2022. The local governor says more than 300 Russians are still missing in Kursk region, but no-one really knows the true figure.
Lyubov says she tried to persuade her mother to leave her village in the Sudzha area, but blames Russian state TV "propaganda" for her refusal to listen. Some 2,000 people remained in the settlements captured by Ukraine's military, Russian authorities estimate.
"The state channels were convincing viewers that 'everything is under control: two or three days, and it'll be just as it was before'," she recalls. She still fails to understand why Russian authorities could not stop Ukrainian soldiers storming two border checkpoints in August 2024, taking around 40 prisoners and bombing a convoy carrying Russian soldiers.
Within six days they had overrun more than 777 sq km (300 sq miles) of Russian territory, as Ukraine's military sought to divert Russian forces away from their front-line offensive. For most of the next eight months, mobile and internet links were down.
Russia's foreign ministry repeatedly accused Ukraine of war crimes against civilians: allegations rejected in Kyiv as completely unfounded. Nearly 200 Russians sent a letter to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and the United Nations, asking them to organise a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians.
It never happened and, by late autumn, battles raged as Russian forces sought to retake the territory. Lyubov and others who had lost contact with their loved ones began to form groups.
FULL REPORT AT: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62ene9kr71o
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