KIEV, Ukraine — Sergei, as we’ll call him, shakes and slurs his words as he tells his story. We are sitting in a ragged park behind a McDonalds restaurant on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. Decaying Soviet tower blocks frame a children's playground.

I met Sergei several hours after Ukraine's first ceasefire came into effect in September. Since then, according to the United Nations, around 300 people have been killed in the bloodshed. While fighting has lessened, Ukrainian soldiers continue to die in the country's southeast.

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