By: Charlie Wang

A war has broken out between Russia and Ukraine which is why 24-year-old Yevgeny Chubarin, a Russian, said his goodbyes to his family. His mom pleaded him not to go but the next day he was sent with an AK-47 and the boy was tragically killed that day.

Because these stories are banned in Russia, the grief families are feeling are buried deep into social media. This war is like fighting the “Nazis” all over again, it is described as existential struggle for survival this is a virtual blackout about the bloody toll in the war.

Some stories still manage to leak out of the cracks. A 59-year-old Soviet-trained pilot Vladimir Krot was a retired Afghan fighter. He wanted to serve Russia by invading Ukraine, but despite getting multiple rejections he got accepted in June. Krot died a few days later after his fighter jet crashed at a training flight. He left his wife and 8-year-old daughter

Internal security visited Dmitry Shkrebets father of Yegor, a soldier who died on a ship. This was after stating how many people died when Black Sea flagship Moskva was sunk by Ukrainian missiles on April 13. Yegor along with the other crew members were listed as “missing”. Officials say that Shkrebets was opposing threats, so they posted on VKontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook exclaiming him making bomb threats.

People in Russia said that they don’t know how many people died in war. They said that it is illegal to know about the invasion into Ukraine and to criticize the military. Journalists in Russia have been arrested or worse for mourning for the deaths of the soldiers they say that allowing “tears and suffering” is setting bad spirts for the public. Families are terrified over this event a woman named Yevgenia Yakovleva wrote. “My soul is torn from pain. I don’t know how to accept this, survive and live with it.”