Seeking advice to modify a story rejected for political dispute

[avatar_roku]

Dear editors,

I have written an incest story about an Indian mother and son who are trapped in Ukraine at the start of the Russia Ukraine war in Feb 2022. The story is all about how they become lovers as they suffer hardships together while trying to escape from Ukraine.

The story is very much rooted into the events leading up to the war. It also contains scenes detailing the death and destruction caused during those initial days. Names of places in Ukraine are also mentioned along with multiple mentions about Russia, India and Poland.

The story was rejected citing below guideline -
'In response to overwhelming feedback from readers, we have decided at this time not to publish works that promote or focus heavily on politics or religion, or political or religious figures or scriptures. Lit readers are bombarded with political disputes on other platforms and they prefer to avoid these types of divisive issues in their erotica.'

I am looking for advice on how to salvage the story and modify it to make it acceptable. Will changing the real country names to some fictional ones solve the issue? Or does it need extensive rewrite?

Thanks in advance!

 

[MillieDynamite]

Set the story in a fictional country, do not cover the reason for the war, only that an invasion happens from an unfriendly country; either don't name the country or name it with a fictional name.

 

[avatar_roku]

Set the story in a fictional country, do not cover the reason for the war, only that an invasion happens from an unfriendly country; either don't name the country or name it with a fictional name.

Thanks for the suggestion. I modified the story replacing Russia and Ukraine with African sounding fictional countries. Also modified the reason of war to something generic and not reminiscent of the actual conflict. The story is finally published!