My name is Kirill, I am 23 years old. I served compulsory military service in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from November 2021 to November 2022. At that time, I still didn’t fully understand how strongly state propaganda shaped the minds of the people around me. But as events unfolded, I saw growing hatred in society and how people were being divided by nationality and origin.

My mother is Ukrainian. And when a wave of hostility and animosity toward everything Ukrainian began in Russia, we felt for the first time that we simply could no longer live in an atmosphere where we were treated as enemies just because of our last name, language, or background. Immediately after I completed my service, our whole family — my father Roman, my mother Vera, and my younger sister Taisia — packed our things and left.

I cannot support Putin’s policies because they are built on inciting hatred, fear, and lies. Propaganda has turned people into blind executors of someone else’s will, and the war has brought nothing but pain, broken families, and shattered lives — both in Russia and in Ukraine.

I believe that people should not hate each other. Hatred is the result of decisions made by politicians who will never personally pay for their mistakes. Ordinary people pay the price — people like us, families forced to leave, friends who stopped speaking to each other, and those who will never return home.

I say this openly because silence means consent. And I do not consent.