War has a way of spilling far beyond the front line, and sometimes the most dangerous battles are not fought with artillery but with narratives. That was the message from Ukraine’s 2nd Khartiia Corps of the National Guard after a tense confrontation in Petropavlivska Borshchahivka, a suburb of Kyiv, where reports of soldiers who had left their units without permission drew a crowd to a house and eventually escalated into a protest. In a statement on Facebook on Nov. 3, the corps tried to step back from the immediate drama and explain what it believes is really happening. As Russia’s…

Imagine the start of an ordinary school day. Students settle into classrooms, teachers call roll, the usual low hum of conversation and shuffling papers fills the corridors. Then, without warning, an announcement crackles over the intercom: the building is being evacuated because of a reported bomb threat. Desks are abandoned, backpacks are left behind, and streams of young people spill out onto sidewalks and lawns, some crying, some staring at their phones, all waiting in cold uncertainty. This scene, which has become painfully common in Ukraine during wartime, played out not once but several times over recent months in different…