"Hero of Russia". Posters of troops with Kalashnikov rifles encouraging the public to "Love, be proud of and defend" Russia. In other words, to sign up and go and fight in Ukraine. Three years after its full-scale invasion of its neighbour, Russia is seeking new recruits.

Despite all the military imagery around town, if you live in Tver it's possible to convince yourself that life is normal. The front line is hundreds of miles away. "Just look around," Mikhail, a local teacher, tells me. "Cars are passing by and all the shops are open. No shells are falling from anywhere. We are not panicking. We can't hear any sirens wailing. We do not run to any evacuation points." For many Russians their invasion of Ukraine – what the Kremlin still calls a "special military operation" – is something they only encounter on their TV screens. But for people like Anna, it's much more real.

"I know a lot of people who went off to fight," Anna says when we get chatting on the street. "Some of them never came home. I hope [the war] ends as soon as possible." Donald Trump claims that's what he wants, too. Without inviting Ukraine to the negotiating table, the Trump administration has already entered direct talks with the Russian leadership.