For the past two and a half years, Russian children have been constantly exposed to propaganda narratives about the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, both in school and through the media. Now, a generation shaped by the war is graduating high school and heading straight to the front lines. Many young men, at barely 18, are signing contracts with the army and being sent into battle after just two weeks of training. In the last two months alone, at least 13 of these young soldiers have died in combat, many on their very first mission. To find out what compels these young men to enlist, the independent outlet Holod spoke with the families of some of the youngest soldiers to lose their lives in Russia’s war. Meduza shares an English-language adaptation of the outlet’s reporting.