Notes

Ukraine war: Why so many Russians turn a blind eye to the conflict
This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear. 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. The evidence suggests that even in the best-case scenario, the mobilization effect will be nonexistent. The Crimea consensus and the symbolic might of state institutions remained, but they lost their power to mobilize. Russia's biggest opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, is facing 19 years in jail and his team say they have had no access to him for more than a week.

The Crimea consensus and the symbolic might of state institutions remained, but they lost their power to mobilize. Public buildings and metro stations would be used as air raid shelters, while anti-aircraft guns might be hidden in parks. Even if cyberattacks didn’t wipe out Netflix, wartime Britons would still face a life without luxuries. But as time passed, I got used to it, no matter how terrible it was. After graduating from the University of Liverpool he wrote for a number of British publications before joining AS USA in 2020.
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. 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. "Even if the baseline result may be affected by self-censorship ... shifts in the trend over time show that people are willing to report changes in opinion," she wrote.

Sky News Services
But, as Belfast-based Russian academic Aleksandr Titov has observed, Russia is nonetheless living through a crisis. 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. 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.


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. And if I am not imprisoned soon for speaking out against war, I want to try – together with like-minded people – to do everything I can to give our country hope for a peaceful future. None of us wanted this war, and we stand in opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions. At demonstrations, people are detained for several days or fined. Now, any anti-war speech can result in up to 15 years of imprisonment.

A few weeks after my trip, I contacted Peter Pomerantsev, who had accompanied me from Lviv to Kyiv. He had been born in Kyiv in 1977, when Ukraine was still a part of the Soviet Union, but was brought up and educated in the United Kingdom, after his parents went into exile there. He has worked in both London and Moscow, where he became an expert on Russian propaganda. Now a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University, Pomerantsev shuttles between Washington, D.C., and Ukraine. I asked him how he felt about the notion of justifiable hatred in the context of Ukraine.

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“For example, a person says, 'I support,' but then researchers will follow up with questions to determine if they are ready to go to war, ready to donate to the Russian army or expect benefits from a possible victory," Koneva explained. Overall, researchers say they have tracked just a 9% fall in support for the war last year. Galina Zapryanova, senior regional editor for the Gallup World Poll, told VOA that polling in Russia " has indeed become more challenging since 2022, but it is not impossible." “Analysts have learned to deal with and avoid authoritarian pressure,” said Koneva, founder of independent research agency ExtremeScan. 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.

If law and order really began to break down, security forces could be authorised to use lethal force against looters; neighbourhood vigilante groups might spring up. Military kit also needs boots on the ground to operate it – hence Sir Patrick’s call for a “Citizen Army” to boost the regular Armed Forces. Whether people would be flocking into recruitment offices is open to question. According to a 2022 YouGov poll, only one in five Britons would volunteer for service in the event of an invasion.

It follows a series of similar drone raids on Russian energy infrastructure in recent weeks, some of which have disrupted fuel production. 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. But many in Russia would be taken by surprise if war was to start soon. By mid-2014, positive views of Russia had fallen to 52 percent.
He says about 50% have "definite support" without any qualms, but the other 30% have support with reservations. A couple walk in front of the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower and St Basil's cathedral in downtown Moscow. 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. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Ukraine war: Three ways the conflict could go in 2024
It is no easy matter to conduct opinion polls in Russia at the best of times, sampling views from St Petersburg to Siberia. Right now though, Russian people are not free to express their opinions anyway, with a new law in place making it a criminal offence to say anything about the Ukraine conflict which the authorities consider untrue. Jenny Hill is in Moscow, and has been keeping her ear to the ground. Yet Volkov added that this tolerance, however passive, is likely to remain quite stable, even strong.


Vladimir Putin’s Russia has sharply constricted the space for free expression in recent years, but some independent pollsters who fled the country have not abandoned their work. Russian forces may try to push again along the entire front, at least to secure all of the Donbas region. Ukraine will probably try to exploit the success it has had in re-establishing its control over the western Black Sea and its vital trade corridor to the Bosphorus. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 saw the return of major war to the European continent. The course of the conflict in 2023 marked the fact that industrial-age warfare had returned too. Recently, Ukraine's winter offensive seems to have come to a halt.


Overall, he’s always had nationalist views, so it’s not surprising. I haven’t lived with my parents for many years, but even if I did, I wouldn’t argue with them, because it’s their business what to think. He said for many people in this group, opinions changed in June 2022 when many realized the conflict was becoming protracted and not the fast military operation initially promised. Beginning in spring 2014, Ukrainian attitudes toward Russia begin to massively change—not because of any state-directed propaganda campaigns but in response to Putin’s military aggression.


Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been highly critical of the EU's financial and military aid for Ukraine and has maintained close ties with Russia. His incomings fell in 2022 as he earned less rental income from real estate he owned because of the outbreak of the war. Only aircraft deployed to protect energy facilities, or those carrying top Russian or foreign officials, will be allowed to fly with special permission in the designated zones, according to the Vedomosti daily newspaper. Meanwhile, Indian thinktank Observer Research Foundation's Russia expert, Nandan Unnikrishnan, said India was unlikely to sign "any major military deal" with Russia because it would cross a red line with the US. "A frank and constructive dialogue is expected to improve relations between states," the Ukrainian president's office said on its official channel on the Telegram messaging app alongside a photo of Mr Szijjarto, Mr Kuleba and Mr Yermak.


Polls suggest the majority of Russians, if not supporting the war, certainly do not oppose it. From fleeting impressions and conversations it is hard to draw firm conclusions. https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-weapons-has-france-sent-to-ukraine.html and pollsters have tried to gauge opinion, but there is no freedom of speech or information in Russia so it is impossible to tell if people are being honest. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left Russia, including me and my BBC Russian colleagues.

Here's my website: https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-weapons-has-france-sent-to-ukraine.html