Day 669ish
Christmas eve
Yesterday I asked someone on leave from active military service whether the terms of his mobilization have anything to do with government plans to change forced conscription and military service based on a service-length contracts.
He looked at me as if I was nuts.
“Until the end.” He’s 49, with three kids, all boys: 18, 16 and 14, all perfectly normal weirdo teenagers I’ve bumped into since they were toddlers. The youngest today is about a foot taller than me. The birthday boy studies astronomy and astro-physics at the university. Their uncle is a 30-year old anesthesiologist who pulls 3-month long tours at stabilization points in eastern Ukraine. Grandfather, 80 something, was there with grandmother. He’s a career submarine officer in the Soviet navy, retired.
No one talked about Z or the war.
On the drive back to Kyiv, air pressure in one of the car’s tires dropped. A cousin from Odesa called from a border crossing between Ukraine and Hungary to ask about the pro…