Ukrainian teen says he nearly became 'cannon fodder for Putin'

Ukrainian teen says he nearly became 'cannon fodder for Putin'

“I am Ukrainian. Why should I sing the Russian anthem?” Lavrov was 16 when Russian soldiers broke into his home in the southern Kherson region in March 2022, a month after the invasion began. Soldiers first took his disabled mother to a psychiatric hospital before taking him away under the pretense of “protection.” The reality was anything but protection, he says. With guns pointed at him, soldiers told him he must comply with Russian law and fo…