Notes

Most Russians say they support the military, according to this pollster : NPR
My mother and I were very afraid for our lives, so the decision was made to leave. For Ukrainians, public messages of opposition to the war will come too late. The country has said that at least 40 soldiers have already been killed and many more civilians injured, as it is threatened with being overrun by a much larger military force. “Putin seems totally indifferent to approval on the street. He’s acting not like a politician in need of public support, but like a figure from national history books who cares only about the approval of future historians and readers,” tweeted Alexander Baunov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Additionally, data suggests that up to 30% of Russians say they’re not closely following the situation in Ukraine, she says. People who are from disadvantaged groups are suffering the most, he adds, because they don't have the resources to adapt. On some level, the data likely reflect an impulse, whether born of fear or passivity, to repeat approved messages rather than articulate your own. Millions of Russians like him are starting to feel the effect of Western economic sanctions designed to punish the country for invading neighbouring Ukraine. However, outside these pro-government circles, the latest actions by the Russian military have considerably less support.
People have young children to look after, cancer and other illnesses to manage, aging parents to care for. It’s easy to imagine that they feel they can’t—or don’t want to—get arrested for opposing a distant war because of these kinds of responsibilities, even if it is being waged in their name. This war is based in no small part on dehumanizing Ukrainians as a group.

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A few years ago, Tape helped start the Arctic Beaver Observation Network, so scientists all around the Arctic could collaborate and share data. But with the invasion of Ukraine, the dream of Russian collaboration in the project stalled, he says. "We're having a meeting at the end of February," he says, "and it's basically Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia. There's no one from Russia coming." In order to build climate models that can accurately predict what will happen to the Arctic in the future, scientists need measurements from across the Arctic. If the available data is concentrated in a few places, like Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia, and excludes Russia's vast Arctic expanses, then the models will be increasingly inaccurate, the study finds. Getting there, however, begins with building a strong, fortified defense-in-depth, but Ukraine also needs continued support to fight off the Russians.


This special operation is complete nonsense and an absurdity that no one needed. Although https://bagge-albrechtsen.mdwrite.net/ukraine-war-countdown-has-begun-to-end-of-putin-say-kyiv-officials-1707512474 is a much smaller country, it is strong patriotically. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is just another man who has been in power too long. One person shouldn’t be in power for a long time, all this power twists and corrupts people. It was the same in 2014, with his decision to annex Crimea. 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.

Ukraine slaps down Slovakia PM for telling it to give up territory
Ukraine’s president signed a decree instructing the government to develop a plan for preserving the national identity of the “historically inhabited lands” of Krasnodar Krai, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov. Ukraine’s president earlier signed a decree instructing the government to develop a plan for preserving the national identity of the “historically inhabited lands” of Krasnodar Krai, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov. Was hatred a natural and ultimately inevitable response to the atrocities Ukrainians were being subjected to?

Only 10-12% of people surveyed by the Levada Center, many of them civil servants and members of the middle class, were aware of this connection. 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. "We're having a meeting at the end of February," he says, "and it's basically Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia. There's no one from Russia coming." Instead, they have to rely on what they can see from space, from satellite images of beaver dams. These are mostly people around my age with the same level of education.
Polls suggest the majority of Russians, if not supporting the war, certainly do not oppose it. In Pskov, near the Estonian and Latvian borders, the atmosphere is gloomy and everyone pretends the war has nothing to do with them, I am told. If they 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.


Ukraine’s armed forces have denied having anything to do with the attack. Mr Trump, the frontrunner to be the Republican candidate in November’s presidential election, said in July that he had a “plan” that would bring peace in 24 hours. “The Kyiv regime is continuing to show its vicious side in that they are striking civilian infrastructure. They are striking people, civilians,” he said, adding that the attack on the same day in Donetsk which killed 25 was a “heinous act of terrorism”. Britain has loosened travel restrictions on four western Ukrainian regions. Ukraine’s foreign ministry has slapped down Slovakia’s prime minister for saying the war with Russia will only end when Kyiv gives up its claim to Crimea and the Donbas.

But ordinary Russians, many of whom get their information from state-controlled television which repeats many of the Kremlin's lines, are expected to start noticing differences to their lives soon. Russian companies could end up cutting hours or stopping production as sanctions bite. 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. A fire at a Russian fuel terminal caused by a Ukrainian drone attack has been extinguished after almost 36 hours. “Everyone has their own opinion but in general, I believe that children and teenagers should not directly express an ardent point of view about politics, and about the special military operation.
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