As the Ukrainian children crowded round to hug the soldier, their former neighbours from Mariupol felt shock and disgust. Putin’s “state of the nation” speech on Tuesday had been hailed by state TV as the “most important political moment of the year”. Now, it was decked out in Russian tricolours, army flags and large Zs, the informal symbol of Russia’s war against Ukraine. These are the images of Russia that Putin imagines to be true: loyal, patriotic, ecstatic at war, slavish. “I feel sick,” wrote Kostya’s former neighbour.
