Online, the Defense Ministry published a splashy video ad focusing on two central motivations: machismo, and money. It defines military service as more meaningful — and manly — than what’s depicted as the Russian man’s typical, humdrum existence. Since the invasion’s beginning, state television newscasts have been offering viewers a sanitized view of the war. “I got all the payments that contract servicemen are entitled to if they’re wounded,” the veteran, Nikolai Karpenko, says. “Contract military service, Nikolai says, gave him the chance to show that he’s a real defender of the fatherland,” the reporter intones.

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Persons: “, Nikolai Karpenko, Nikolai, intones Organizations: Defense Ministry, Russian Defense Locations: Russian, Irkutsk, Siberia, Ukraine