Notes

Opinion Russians Know Their Country Has Suffered a Moral Defeat The New York Times
It is firmly controlled by the Kremlin and pumps out relentless war propaganda. Ukrainians are said to shell their own cities, and Russian troops are presented as liberators. An authoritarian streak runs through Putin’s two decades in control of Russia and his government takes any opportunity it has to crush opposition and gag dissenters.


The ISW does note that Russia's advances might be the result of Ukrainian forces withdrawing to "more defensible positions" near Robotyne. When Ukraine retook Robotyne in August it was hoped that its forces would be able to cut the land corridor to Crimea, making Moscow's supply lines more complicated. The attack on the Slavneft-YANOS refinery caused no fire or casualties, governor Mikhail Yevrayev said.

What do Russians see and hear about the war in Ukraine?
Mr Zelenskyy has called for public officials to disclose their incomes to increase transparency and eliminate corruption as Ukraine tries to meet the stringent requirements for its bid to join the European Union. Mr Szijarto will be in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak. Phillips P OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, wrote in an analysis piece that the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House could see the US "neuter" the Western military alliance. NPR's A Martinez talks to Julia Ioffe, founding partner of the media company Puck, about Russia's crack down on free speech which has led many media outlets to leave the country or go underground. Social media testimonies speak to a growing sense of panic, with some saying they are being rushed into bomb shelters and into basements.


Historically, Russia and countries that are a part of Nato have not always got on. Many people in Ukraine want the country to join Nato to avoid being dominated by Russia. The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) is a military alliance of countries which includes the US and the UK. It is estimated the UK has spent £2.3bn on military assistance, making the country the second biggest military donor behind the US.

Ukraine war: Why so many Russians turn a blind eye to the conflict
“Not just us but all of Europe is living on this credit.” She added, “I want to mark my position as someone lacking objectivity. Even those who did agree to answer the questions in Miniailo’s survey displayed a heightened level of fear and discomfort. https://squareblogs.net/racingden14/ukraine-war-what-russias-escalating-air-attacks-mean in his fifties said, “It is now prohibited by law to answer what you think about this topic. Russia's defence ministry has denied attacking Ukrainian cities - saying it was targeting military infrastructure, air defence and air forces with "high-precision weapons". The irony here is that while Moscow has been demanding Nato move its forces further westwards, Putin's invasion of Ukraine has achieved the exact opposite.


But what kind of guarantees they would give independent Ukraine is not yet clear. Many who study and report on Russia, me included, believe a small percentage of people actively support the war, and a small percentage actively oppose it. Polls suggest the majority of Russians, if not supporting the war, certainly do not oppose it.


In the weeks leading up to Russia's invasion, I would walk for hours in the central Moscow district of Zamoskvorechiye, where I had lived and worked in the BBC office for seven years.

That the Kremlin was right to block the majority of independent media sites they used to read. People I met in the park wondered whether the statue had been the intended target, or whether the missile had been meant to hit a nearby government installation, and been downed by an air-defense missile? After graduating from the University of Liverpool he wrote for a number of British publications before joining AS USA in 2020. "In one sense the situation now is far more perilous than it was in 1914 and 1939 because the major powers all have nuclear weapons. One man in his fifties said, “It is now prohibited by law to answer what you think about this topic.
Even before the war, Russia was not the kind of place where you willy-nilly shared your political beliefs with strangers, let alone with those who called out of the blue. Russian air defences have prevented a drone attack on an oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl, northeast of Moscow, the regional governor has said. Hungary has signalled it is ready to compromise on EU funding for Ukraine - after Brussels reportedly prepared to sabotage its economy if it did not comply. Meanwhile, Moscow has claimed its forces have taken control of the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region. 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.


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. It’s not that she doesn’t know alternative information is out there, but that she doesn’t want it, lest her vision of the world come under threat. “It’s not about having to reconsider this one event but everything you thought and understood over the last ten or fifteen years,” Volkov told me.


It has cut diplomatic ties with Russia, offered weapons to anyone who wants them and declared an overnight curfew for Kyiv. But later on Thursday President Zelensky said Ukraine had suffered losses and a lot of aircraft and armoured vehicles had been destroyed. Convoys have also entered the eastern Luhansk and Kharkiv regions, and moved into the Kherson region from Crimea - a territory that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Russia did not want to occupy Ukraine, he said, but would demilitarise and "de-Nazify" the country. The letter "Z" — initially used by Russian forces to identify their own on the battlefield — quickly became a potent pro-war propaganda tool for the Kremlin. One pattern identified by pollsters is that most Russians say they would support peace talks to end the fighting.

If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at Here’s where Ukraine has mounted multiple attacks this week in the apparent beginning of its long-planned counteroffensive. "Russia is becoming absolutely isolated," Ekaterina Kotrikadze, who was an anchor for the independent TV Rain in Russia before she fled her country, told CBS News. While dissenting voices to Putin’s invasion are minimised in Russia, the scale and the intensity of the feeling of support for Ukraine means that the opposition cannot be entirely silenced by the Kremlin. In Belgorod, close to the Ukrainian border and just 80km (50 miles) from the now war-torn city of Kharkiv, local people are now used to convoys of military trucks roaring towards the front line. They have been offered the opportunity to live in other countries like Germany, France, Poland and the UK, with a chance of safety, food, healthcare and education for young people.
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