I believe that the political system in Russia will be severely degraded in the coming years. Business, housing and community services, medicine, education – everything will sag. After such colossal losses, the army will have to be rebuilt again. It seemed to me that all this was not real and could not last long. But as time passed, I got used to it, no matter how terrible it was.
One person shouldn’t be in power for a long time, all this power twists and corrupts people. Ukraine revealed at the end of 2022 that 10-13,000 of its soldiers had been killed since the start of the war. That figure cannot be confirmed, but it followed a US estimate of some 100,000 Ukrainians killed or wounded by November. Before Western artillery arrived in the east last summer, Kyiv officials said 100 to 200 troops were dying every day.
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One pattern identified by pollsters is that most Russians say they would support peace talks to end the fighting. But what kind of guarantees they would give independent Ukraine is not yet clear. Why Russians do not protest is perhaps better explained by Russian history and not opinion polls. Polls suggest the majority of Russians, if not supporting the war, certainly do not oppose it.
Residents feel abandoned and angry in the little frontier town of Shebekino, where cross-border shelling has become a daily reality. But local doctors are leaving their jobs in droves, unable to cope with the numbers of war-wounded being brought for treatment in local hospitals. If situation in Ukraine are troubled by Russia bombing a city where many have friends and relatives, then they're trying not to show it. But surrounded by reminders of Russia's often relentlessly violent past I felt war was now inevitable. My daily walks were my way of saying goodbye to a world, and perhaps even a country, that could never be the same again.
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Seventy-nine percent of Russians linked that action to the revival of Russia as a great power and a return to Russia’s rightful dominance of the former Soviet Union. One of my friends is against our government while her grandmother supports them, and I know that’s caused a quarrel between them. When I think about the conflict, I feel anxious, sad, and frustrated.
The first, a blitzkrieg to capture Kyiv, failed within the first month. The second, the seemingly inevitable offensive, stalled in the summer and was abandoned in early September following the success of Ukraine’s counter-offensive. In the third version, the Russian motherland has been declared in danger and hundreds of thousands of men are being drafted to fight. The “partial mobilisation” declared by Vladimir Putin on September 21st looks like forced improvisation and it is disrupting the balance of interests and loyalties in Russian society, where views on the war are very mixed. He described the US as an important country but accused it of imperialism. He urged the US to "respect other people and countries" and said Russia was ready to restore relations once this happened.
Some teenagers have been arrested for sabotaging railways, sharing anti-war memes on social media, and taking part in peace rallies – although actual criminal charges for under-18s are relatively rare. By early summer Ukraine will be able to use US-made F16 fighter jets for the first time, which it hopes will improve its ability to counter Russian aircraft and strengthen its own air defences. Nato member states have increasingly sent Ukraine air defence systems to protect its cities, as well as missile systems, artillery and drones that helped turn the tide against Russia's invasion. Dissent in Russia is highly risky, with jail sentences handed out for anyone spreading "fake news" about the Russian military.
- Over 2022, I helped with humanitarian aid for visiting refugees from the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, collected humanitarian aid, and wrote letters for mobilised servicemen.
- Blasts have also been heard in the southern port city of Odesa.
- … The media gives only authorized information, and the [country at large] 'absorbs’ losses,” she explained.
- Hungary has now signalled its readiness for a compromise ahead of an emergency EU summit on Thursday.
I can do without access to the blocked social media platforms. I don’t support that view, but I do think we need some changes. In response, the US, EU, UK and other countries have levelled sanctions, both general and targeted, and doors have closed to Russians around the world, from research institutions to sporting events, in protest at Russia’s invasion.
- "There is danger in going to war and no-one wants to do that. But it was also prudent to be planning about what would happen if in the event this whole incident escalated, which was considered to be very likely at the time."
- It was rather cheap, but now I want to buy AirPods and they’re really expensive.
- At the same time, there have been cases of pro-war pupils recording their teachers making dovish statements in class, and reporting them to the authorities.
- Of course, that may be a strange example, but I just mean those of us who are against war still suffer from it.
There have also been reports of troops landing by sea at the Black Sea port cities of Mariupol and Odesa in the south. A British resident of Odesa told the BBC many people were leaving. Tanks and troops have poured into Ukraine at points along its eastern, southern and northern borders, Ukraine says. There are, however, Russian independent media who still defy government restrictions. As a result, some of the few remaining independent media in Russia have started to censor themselves.
- "You will not silence us," Meduza said in a defiant statement.
- There are reports of attacks on Ukrainian military infrastructure across the country, and Russian convoys entering from all directions.
- "My advice when we had the chat was, I said to him that I thought that the police-led option was really the only way to go because it would be more acceptable in terms of less provocative," he says.
Russian state television—instrumental in shaping public opinion—serves all these audiences. Yet Volkov added that this tolerance, however passive, is likely to remain quite stable, even strong. “If I watched different channels, I would probably have a different opinion, but I don’t watch them,” she said.
- The planes can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build.
- There, for three days, panelists addressed topics related to Ukraine, Russia, war, and culture.
- "I also couldn't pay in a shop today - for the same reason."
- Russia's long-time leader was also desperate to prevent Ukraine from entering Nato's orbit, but his attempt to blame the Western defensive alliance for the war is false.
- He calculates that the greater (though still limited) involvement of the Russian population in Ukraine may push Russians to support their boys in uniform more strongly.