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Russian sisters see father scarred by Ukraine fight

In the picture, Anastasaia and Elizaveta Grigoryeva’s father is faintly smiling, smartly dressed from head to toe in military uniform and holding a puppy to the camera.

It’s an image of their father no longer recognisable to the 18-year-old twin sisters — not since he left to fight in Ukraine some six months ago and returned a “broken man”.

“He was there for the most intense fighting, under shelling, everything,” Elizaveta tells AFP.

“He says himself, being shelled for six hours will change a man. And so many deaths. He needs medical help,” she adds.

The psychological scars her father has brought home from the battlefield has built pressure on a family already at odds over whether the conflict is justified.

And their story points to a broader issue, one uncomfortable for the Kremlin — that fighting in Ukraine is taking a harsh toll at home and tearing apart some families. Elizaveta believes many more veterans will return traumatised.

The sisters, who are staunchly opposed to the military intervention in Ukraine, live in Pskov near Russia’s border with Estonia.

The medieval city of around 200,000 people is also home to the 76th Guards Air Assault Division — their father’s paratrooper unit.

In January, Grigoryev told his daughters he was leaving just for a few days for military drills in Belarus. 

He wouldn’t return for six months.

– ‘War is a crime’ – 

His unit took part in the calamitous assault for Kyiv that ended with the Russia’s withdrawal from northern of Ukraine in March.

Investigative journalists have placed the unit around that time near the Ukrainian town of Bucha, where Kyiv and international investigators have accused Russian forces of executing civilians.

Russia denies harming civilians but Anastasia and Elizaveta wonder if their father could have somehow been involved.

“He says he didn’t kill anyone,” says Elizaveta.

“But war is a crime in and of itself,” Anastasia answers.

“Yeah, so, supporting or taking part in the war is already a crime,” concludes Elizaveta.

The sisters were shocked when Putin announced Russia’s military invention, and in early March took to the streets, carrying signs that read: “Peace in Ukraine, Freedom in Russia.”

Turnout was low at the protest in Pskov and  the sisters were immediately detained.

They were threatened with jail time by police but eventually released. 

Instead there were ordered to pay a fine equivalent to around 330 euros for “organising” an illegal gathering.

While Anastasia and Elizaveta were entangled in legal problems at home, their father’s well-being was deteriorating.

In May, the 43-year-old soldier asked his family to start the administrative process needed to return him from the front.

He left the battlefield “for health reasons” in mid-June and is now going through the procedure to be discharged from the army after around 20 years of service.

“That much stress has changed how he sees the world. He lost comrades. He saw…

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