Renata Zhiltsova had accomplished many things in her young life -- a stable family with her doctor husband and their three children, a home and garden, and a successful career as a neurosurgeon.
But Zhiltsova -- who is just 33 -- had to leave her home, job, and country behind when Russia invaded Ukraine and she received a summons from a military enlistment office in the Siberian city of Omsk.
"I thought it must be a mistake, because I'm the mother of three young children," Zhiltsova told RFE/RL. But Zhiltsova was informed she would be sent to the front line.
"Female employees of the enlistment office were laughing and telling me: 'You'll be on the front line...in the trenches; you'll have a gun. What are you worried about? There are a lot of young men, you'll like it,'" said Zhiltsova, who now lives in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with her children.
"I wasn't the only woman doctor whom they wanted to send to war. There are female gynecologists and dentists among my friends who were mobilized for the war. Some of them even had babies," she added.
In the meantime, Zhiltsova's husband was given a deferment from military service because he's a doctor. Zhiltsova suspects she was selected for mobilization as punishment for attending an anti-war protest in the early days of the invasion.
The majority of Zhiltsova's relatives support the war. Her father -- an entrepreneur -- says President Vladimir Putin should have invaded Ukraine 10 years ago. Her mother, who works at an oil company in Omsk, accuses Zhiltsova of being paid by certain countries to oppose the war.
Zhiltsova's husband -- whom she has since separated from -- also supports the invasion. He is now seeking full custody of their children in a Russian court. Zhiltsova fears the court will rule against her because of her anti-war stance and because Russian bailiffs will take her children away even if she is in Kazakhstan.
When she calls her parents in Russia, Zhiltsova tries to avoid talking about the war as it has become an upsetting conversation that ends with heated arguments and her parents hanging up on her.
'Pro-Putin' Neighbors
Zhiltsova has made many friends in Kazakhstan, where she says “everybody in the apartment block” knows her.
But like her relatives in Russia, most of her new friends and neighbors support the Kremlin’s war effort, she says.
“People are very nice, open, and friendly here, but I realized that locals support Putin,” Zhiltsova said. “Everybody categorically agrees…that it was about time [to attack Ukraine].”
Public opinion in Kazakhstan regarding the war in Ukraine has changed in the first year of the conflict, turning increasingly negative toward the Kremlin, a poll in late November showed.
According to the pollster Demoscope, 22 percent of the respondents expressed support for Ukraine, twice as many as in a similar poll at the beginning of the conflict.
Just 13 percent of the respondents supported Russia, down from 39 percent in that March 2022 survey.
Kazakhstan faced a sudden influx of Russians fleeing the war in February and March 2022, followed by another massive arrival of emigres in late September, when Moscow announced a military mobilization.
More than 930,000 Russians -- mostly conscript-aged men -- entered Kazakhstan in the second influx, though the majority left for other countries.
An estimated 146,000 of them remained in Kazakhstan, according to Kazakh Interior Ministry figures released on December 21, 2022.
Zhiltsova has got a temporary job in Kazakhstan, and her children go to school there. But she wants to leave Kazakhstan and settle in Europe.
She says she doesn’t regret leaving Russia, although she admits “it’s been hard” to abandon her good job, home, and the garden, as well as the children’s good schools.
“At the same time, I’m happy that I’m not in a military trench, I am alive and have my children with me,” she said. “I feel like I am 16 again and will start everything from scratch.”
