She's Ukrainian-American. Her relatives are in Russia. Family group texts are awkward

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/23/ [login to see] /shes-ukrainian-american-her-relatives-are-in-russia-family-group-texts-are-awkwa
Anna Shyrokova used to have a family group chat, where she and her extended family across the United States, Ukraine and Russia shared baby videos and other family moments.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine last year.

"My husband brought up the war...kind of incidentally, and everyone kind of clammed up," Shyrokovasays, "And some people kind of left the chat."

Conflict soon spilled off the chat. Her mother, who grew up in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and now lives in California, had a huge fight with Shyrokova's cousin in Moscow about whether Kharkiv's zoo had been bombed. They agreed that bombing the zoo is senseless.But they disagreed over whether the attack actually happened.

"My cousin's, like, no, they didn't bomb the zoo. Why would they bomb the zoo? There's no military strategy in bombing the zoo." Shyrokova recalls, " [she] was like, yeah, they bombed our zoo. Why would they do that? There's no military strategy in bombing the zoo. Why are they so heartless?"