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.
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. https://euronewstop.co.uk/how-many-aircraft-has-russia-lost-in-ukraine.html 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.
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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.
- The Ukrainian armed forces said they had shot down five Russian planes and a helicopter - which Russia denies - and inflicted casualties on invading troops.
- By mid-2014, positive views of Russia had fallen to 52 percent.
- 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."
- Throughout the war, researchers have been trying to understand what factors would reduce public support in Russia.
- Ukraine's position is that Russian troops must pull back beyond Ukraine's internationally recognised borders for there to be peace.
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.
Russians make Thailand a refuge as Ukraine war enters second year
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.
- In contrast, Ukraine’s three presidents since the 2004 Orange Revolution never organized anti-Russian media campaigns.
- After such colossal losses, the army will have to be rebuilt again.
- "It's not the language that people expect prime ministers and presidents to be saying but I think it played to his strengths of being strong and muscular and all of that."
- He described the US as an important country but accused it of imperialism.
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. 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.
‘I‘m not going to leave here and give up. Russia is my home’
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.
