Notes

What do Russians think of the war in Ukraine? Russia-Ukraine war News
Positive Russian attitudes toward Ukraine once again dramatically collapsed during the Euromaidan, which was portrayed in massive state-sponsored information campaigns as a Western-backed coup bringing Russophobes and fascists to power. A just-released poll by Russia’s Levada Center shows that Russians think the most hostile countries are the United States, followed by Ukraine, Germany, Latvia, and Lithuania. Two-thirds of Ukrainians, but only a quarter of Russians, understand the conflict as a Russian-Ukrainian war. I deleted some of my messages because the police check social media chats on public transportation.

"The way the nation came together under Tony Abbott's leadership to support the families I think was one of the best things I've seen in my life." Koneva said her research group has focused on examining the opinions of the core audience that supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. Abbott wants to discuss the option of sending "a large military deployment" to Ukraine in response to the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 by Russia-backed separatists. That is because its most avid proponents, and its most intractable opponents, will not change their minds. For the record, they don’t support the war in general, they do want it to stop; however, they can justify it in their heads somehow.
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. Even those who did agree to answer the questions in Miniailo’s survey displayed a heightened level of fear and discomfort. One man in his fifties said, “It is now prohibited by law to answer what you think about this topic. https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-will-china-do-if-russia-invades-ukraine.html 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.

Media in Russia: How do Russians get news about the war in Ukraine?
Was hatred a natural and ultimately inevitable response to the atrocities Ukrainians were being subjected to? Does it change anything to know that many Russians oppose Putin’s war but are powerless to stop him, or to understand that others have been duped into supporting it through his hyper-nationalistic discourse? 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.


For democracies, long-term consensus in support for war has always been more complicated than for autocrats with no accountability. The US defence aid package is held hostage by what President Biden rightly labelled "petty politics" in Washington. And the future of the EU's economic aid is seemingly dependent on Hungary's incongruous stance.

Anna*, 22, Moscow – ‘None of us wanted this war’
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, an outcry has arisen around the world. On March 2, the UN voted overwhelmingly to approve a resolution demanding the end of the invasion, with only five countries opposing – Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea, and Syria. As the war rages on, thousands have been killed according to Ukrainian authorities and many more injured. 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.

On the other hand, Volkov says that people in big cities who are well-off and well-connected do have the resources, but are suffering "morally." From fleeting impressions and conversations it is hard to draw firm conclusions. Surveys have suggested that the majority of Russians support the invasion. History will ultimately decide how much of the blame for initiating the bloodshed rests on Vladimir Putin alone, as well as his Kremlin acolytes, and how much responsibility rests with the tacit acceptance of ordinary Russians. After a series of humiliating retreats, his initial invasion plan has clearly failed, but Russia's war is far from over. Ukrainians are said to shell their own cities, and Russian troops are presented as liberators.
The Ukrainian armed forces said they had shot down five Russian planes and a helicopter - which Russia denies - and inflicted casualties on invading troops. About 10 civilians are believed to have been killed, including six in an air strike in Brovary near the capital Kyiv. A man was also killed in shelling outside the major eastern city of Kharkiv. Russian military convoys have crossed from Belarus into Ukraine's northern Chernihiv region, and from Russia into the Sumy region, which is also in the north, Ukraine's border guard service (DPSU) said. BBC correspondents heard loud bangs in the capital Kyiv, as well as Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Blasts have also been heard in the southern port city of Odesa.

Inaccessible Cities: The experience of those with disabilities
Online, most independent news websites are blocked or restricted, and so are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. 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. But even though justification of the Ukraine invasion can be found among Russians, there have been no demonstrations of support. It’s sunny, people are taking selfies on Red Square, while a long convoy of National Guard buses rolls by the Kremlin walls. A group of three young police officers take off down the street but don’t find any suitable targets. They finally spot a man, who, as he's being dragged to the police van, is revealed to be very drunk.

Al Jazeera spoke with five young Russians about their views on the invasion, and how the blowback has affected them. Over the weekend the central bank appealed for calm amid fears of a run on the banks, which happens when too many people try to withdraw money. It seems like it will close – I saw employees removing shelves and emptying boxes, and the light was turned off. In the pre-dawn of Kyiv, Houston listens to the prime minister run through the options of a police-led operation and a military deployment.
However, Mr Orban's political director said this morning that Hungary was open to using the EU budget to allow further aid for Ukraine. Hungary has now signalled its readiness for a compromise ahead of an emergency EU summit on Thursday. A little earlier, we told you about a report in the Financial Times that the EU was proposing to sabotage Hungary's economy if Budapest blocks further aid for Ukraine this week.

Putin’s authoritarian and great power nationalistic regime fanned ethnic Russian nationalism, turning Russians against both the Ukraine state and Ukrainians as a people. Volkov adds that public opinion matters, even though the Russian government isn't taking the public's pulse in order to plan its next moves. The sanctions now hitting Russia are being described as economic war - they aim to isolate the country and create a deep recession there.
From fleeting impressions and conversations it is hard to draw firm conclusions. Sociologists 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. 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. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have left Russia, including me and my BBC Russian colleagues.

This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. The first, a blitzkrieg to capture Kyiv, failed within the first month. For another, it has exposed how the centralised administrative machinery, built by Mr Putin, struggles in an emergency. A stalwart of independent reporting for almost 29 years, the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, suspended operations on 28 March after receiving warnings from Russia's media watchdog Roskomnadzor.
My Website: https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-will-china-do-if-russia-invades-ukraine.html