To Russia, he is a traitor and right-wing extremist. In Ukraine, he is a Russian preventing towards his personal nation.

Kyiv, Ukraine
CNN
 — 

On the outskirts of Kyiv, past endless rows of Soviet-style apartment blocks, there’s a sterile rehabilitation center filled with Ukrainian troops injured on the front lines.

There are patients with nerve damage, burns, breaks, even an amputated leg – and it seems almost everyone’s inked arms and legs are spotted with shrapnel wounds.

Stepan Kaplunov lies on a bed with a medieval-looking contraption moving his leg back and forth – both legs were broken in battle when a tank shell exploded next to him.

Sporting a shaved head, beard and a sleeve of tattoos, he looks like every other Ukrainian soldier in the room – except that Kaplunov is actually Russian. It’s the only citizenship he holds.

Born in Ivanovo, about 150 miles northeast of Moscow, he grew up in Russia’s far north and later joined the Russian military, serving a…

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