It was late December 2021 when Igor Ivkin, a 19-year-old contract soldier from Pskov, a city in northwestern Russia, was sent to the Ukrainian border as part of a massive military buildup ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But after spending more than a month posted with his unit along the border in winter conditions, Ivkin received some good news on February 7: His 23-year-old wife, Yulia Ivkina, had given birth to their daughter, Ksenia.
