Notes

How is the Ukraine invasion being viewed in Russia? Russia-Ukraine war News
You can be horrified by what Russia has done and is doing—as of course I am—and, at the same time, be concerned about dehumanizing a whole group of people in response. But, at the same time, I can understand why this might seem like sophistry to Ukrainians who have lost their homes, their friends, and seen their fellow Ukrainians tortured and murdered. None of us wanted this war, and we stand in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions.

Volkov told Inskeep that he's aware of the pitfalls with these polls, but they may still have valuable information to teach us. That’s despite a backdrop of unceasing vitriol directed toward Ukraine on state television, and the persistent, oft-repeated idea that it is external attacks that require Russia to take defensive measures. The same thing with conferences – international events that take place in Moscow are all cancelled. On the sixth day of the war in Ukraine, there have been more than 6,000 arrests at anti-war protests across Russia. It is this that makes the anti-war protests against the invasion of Ukraine so telling. Maybe Putin and his people know more and it’s really all justified.
Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed six Russian regions were “historically inhabited by Ukrainians”. Permafrost is the permanently frozen ground found across the Arctic. As it thaws, it creates massive problems for infrastructure built on top of it, causing roads to buckle, building foundations to crack and pipelines to break. Western officials have been reluctant to characterize Russian efforts as effective. A top Pentagon official told reporters this week that while Moscow has tried to shatter the lines in eastern Ukraine, it has "not succeeded" in its efforts. One reason why Ukraine's much-anticipated summer counteroffensive failed to produce significant results was that Russia had built a complex network of defensive fortifications throughout Russian-occupied territory in eastern and southern Ukraine.

A year on, what do young Russians think of the war in Ukraine?
The evidence suggests that even in the best-case scenario, the mobilization effect will be nonexistent. 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. From fleeting impressions and conversations it is hard to draw firm conclusions.


On the contrary, the people taking to the streets are those against it, despite threats of arrests. The protesters trickle along smaller streets, following location updates from dedicated Telegram channels. The night ends with a 39-year-old man driving a car into the police barriers at Pushkin Square with signs “This is war! Not all forecasts regarding the detrimental impact of the war on Russia's economy had proven accurate, Gudkov said. Oil prices rose in the first year of the conflict, generating more revenue for the Russian state and certain segments of the Russian population. Sectors of the economy necessary for war efforts are working at maximum capacity, and wages in these sectors have doubled.

‘There are a lot of lies. Both on our side, and from Ukraine’
Right now, we cannot withdraw other currencies at ATMs until September. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the older generation is drowning in propaganda and believes that Putin’s actions are justified. Al Jazeera spoke with five young Russians about their views on the invasion, and how the blowback has affected them. 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. War never leads to anything good and won’t this time either,” – says 18-year-old Tonya, wearing a bag with a hand-stitched "No war" sign.

"I always pay with my phone but it simply didn't work. There were some other people with the same problem. It turned out that the barriers are operated by VTB bank which is under sanctions and cannot accept Google Pay and Apple Pay. Compensation paid to wounded soldiers and the families of killed soldiers, many of whom live in the countryside, has also increased significantly. In contrast, during the same period, the percentage of Russians holding positive views of Ukrainians plummeted from 55 to 34 percent. But with the invasion of Ukraine, the dream of Russian collaboration in the project stalled, he says.
I asked him how he felt about the notion of justifiable hatred in the context of Ukraine. Even so, the messages made for some jarring moments for some of those present, featuring as they often did ultra-patriotic and sometimes militaristic declarations. Many of the Ukrainian writers at the forum also expressed similar sentiments. In a panel I moderated, the Ukrainian historian and author Olena Stiazhkina began her remarks by expressing her gratitude to the Ukrainian armed forces for their defense of the homeland. “We’re all living on credit given to us by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” she said.


According to the Athena Project, a collective of sociologists and I.T. Twenty-one per cent of TV viewers didn’t know the goal of the operation. Then, as now, except for a few missile attacks, Lviv is probably one of the safest places to be in Ukraine, far from the front lines in the east and the south. Even so, rather than taking place in different public locations around the city, as usual, the forum was convened in an underground theatre on the hilltop campus of Ukrainian Catholic University, a ten-minute drive from the city center. There, for three days, panelists addressed topics related to Ukraine, Russia, war, and culture. On some level, the data likely reflect an impulse, whether born of fear or passivity, to repeat approved messages rather than articulate your own.

The evidence suggests that even in the best-case scenario, the mobilization effect will be nonexistent. The irredentist claims to the regions have long been made by Ukrainian nationalists. Since Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula and backed militants in the eastern Donbas region in 2014, there's been no real let-up in fighting, cyber-attacks and misinformation. He says the firm asks about peoples' feelings, and is seeing that both groups — those who support and oppose the military's actions — are anxious and afraid.
While 80% of poll respondents say they support Russia's military, some have mixed feelings. The roots of Russia's invasion of Ukraine go back decades and run deep. The current conflict is more than one country fighting to take over another; it is — in the words of one U.S. official — a shift in "the world order."Here are some helpful stories to make sense of it all. Some of the support is more passive, Botchkovar says, coming from Russian citizens who’ve placed their faith in Putin as a political leader, but who may not necessarily vocalize that support. The common thread, she says, is a deep distrust of the West, rooted in decades of state propaganda. To put it simply, before launching an offensive, it’s worth thinking about who will fight in that offensive and how willingly, and to what extent an active conflict will prompt people to rally around Putin.


In recent days the value of the Russian ruble has slumped against the dollar, the cost of living for Russians has soared and numerous companies, such as Apple, Disney and Nike, have withdrawn their products from Russia. This man has a certain political style, to which most of the Russian population is already accustomed. He is not a bright leader, and not the tyrant that the opposition paints him as, but he is definitely not the best thing that could happen to Russia.


As concern grows that Russia will invade Ukraine, BBC correspondents gauge the public mood in Moscow and Kyiv on whether the crisis could lead to a wider war in Europe. For Russians this all brings back memories of what happened when President Putin annexed Crimea in 2014 and people queued for hours to get cash. Russian companies could end up cutting hours or stopping production as sanctions bite. As well as their savings falling in value, many Russians are predicted to lose their jobs as the economy reels from being cut off from financial markets in the West. But by Monday customers of Russia's biggest state-backed bank, Sberbank, told BBC Russian they could not order cash via the app at all - they had to go to its office and sign a form to do so.

I really cannot understand why Russians don’t have the right to eat in McDonald’s. Their town has been directly affected, so we are worried about them. Now, I’m very encouraged by the fact that the world understands that the Russian people did not choose this war, that instead it was started by a president who lives in some absurd reality of his own. On Monday Russia more than doubled its interest rate to 20% in response to the sanctions after the rouble plunged to record new lows. From fleeting impressions and conversations it is hard to draw firm conclusions.
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