(KYIV) – A senior Russian drone operator from an elite unit has defected to Ukraine, providing a rare insight into the Kremlin’s recruitment methods and the internal dissent festering within its forces as the invasion continues to stall. The defector, identified as 24-year-old Mirislav Simonov, originally worked as a real estate agent in Novosibirsk, roughly 2,000 miles from the Ukrainian border. His journey from a coerced recruit to a fugitive crossing a corpse-filled trench under fire reveals the deepening contradictions in Russia’s war effort, where Moscow is losing incredible amounts of troops whilst making no significant battlefield gains. Simonov’s story, detailed…