And we have the specter of pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine stoking separatist feelings there. After the forum had ended, I made a visit to Kyiv that coincided with a Russian missile-and-drone barrage that heralded the start of Putin’s extensive campaign on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. 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? On the next block, fragments had struck the façade of a neoclassical building that once housed Ukraine’s first sovereign Congress, during a previous, short-lived attempt at independence, just before the country’s absorption by the Soviet Union. The hits on two symbols of Ukrainian sovereignty struck many as not coincidental. For Ukrainians, the looming first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of their country is a historic milestone within an ongoing tragedy of unprovoked bloodshed, one which seems to be escalating again.
"We are measuring public attitudes that, more or less, coincide with how people will behave in public," he adds. He's the director of the Levada Center, an independent polling firm in Russia.
- It began to dip slightly in early March, only to rebound around the country’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations, according to the FilterLabs analysis.
- Koneva said that in June 2023, respondents were asked to send "virtual telegrams to ordinary Ukrainian citizens."
- I deleted some of my messages because the police check social media chats on public transportation.
- The overall effect means Finland can muster one of Europe's largest armies.
- More so than Ukrainians, Russians have a difficult time defining a history without the Soviet Union at the center,” the Yale historian said.
The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for Russia and plus or minus 3 points for Ukraine for nation-wide data. “The Russian leadership tends to define Russia as the successor state of the Soviet Union. More so than Ukrainians, Russians have a difficult time defining a history without the Soviet Union at the center,” the Yale historian said. Ukrainians overwhelmingly feel Russia and Ukraine should be two separate countries, with 85% saying so, 9% saying they should be one country, and 6% responding that they did not know. No region of Ukraine, and no age group, has a majority where respondents say Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
Elsewhere on the BBC
It began to dip slightly in early March, only to rebound around the country’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations, according to the FilterLabs analysis. Earlier today, a Russian official said air defences had thwarted a drone attack on the Slavneft-YANOS oil refinery in the city of Yaroslavl. You can argue that it isn’t realistic or human to force all Russians into a black-and-white response—either oppose the war or you are complicit.
- Public support dropped following both of these military interventions.
- For example, in certain online communities, they’ll just post a single number (indicating a date) and everyone understands everything.
- 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.
- Ukrainian drones attacked a St Petersburg oil terminal on Friday and another 110 miles west at Ust-Luga on Sunday.
Donald Tusk, Poland’s new prime minister, has arrived in Kyiv on his first visit to Ukraine since being elected. “Russian air defense systems in Leningrad Oblast are most likely positioned to defend against strikes from the north-west and west, as Russia has historically arrayed its air defense in the area to defend against hypothetical Nato attacks,” it said. A man serving in Ukraine’s national guard has been arrested after four people were murdered in a Donetsk city.
Thousands of non-Ukrainians have served in its armed forces since Russia’s invasion in 2014. Ukraine’s armed forces have denied having anything to do with the attack. 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. “We discussed with the prime minister that all critical issues that exist can be resolved at the level of governments, and work on this will begin shortly,” Mr Zelensky said. The Polish prime minister’s visit to Ukraine represents a step towards rapprochement between the two countries after border blockades by Polish truckers.
Russia Given Cold Shoulder by Sports World Due to Invasion of Ukraine
“Ukraine has achieved this because it has largely prevented the Russian Black Sea Fleet from operating in the western Black Sea, where it is held at risk by Ukrainian missiles and uncrewed surface vessels,” it said. In its latest defence intelligence briefing, the MoD said Ukraine exported more grain in December 2023 than in any other month since Russia’s invasion. 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 Kremlin has said it has no idea how Donald Trump could follow through on his claimed plan to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.
- Many of the Ukrainian writers at the forum also expressed similar sentiments.
- Companies, too, have closed their doors in Russia, including fast-food giant McDonald’s which has temporarily shut its roughly 850 outlets.
- They may be frightened and apprehensive, and not very keen to fight, but they are not ready to break away from the imaginary “national body” whose will and aspirations are expressed for them by Mr Putin.
- Poland’s prime minister said his country would do “everything” to help Kyiv win the war.
Even as Russians tend to say Russians and Ukrainians are one people, a majority of Russians (54%) say they should be two countries – although a third (34%) say they should be one country. Even in eastern Ukraine, which borders Russia and is partially controlled by Russian-backed separatists, fewer than half (45%) of respondents said they agree that Russians and Ukrainians are one people – a score much lower than in Russia. Smuggled into the essay is the notion that there was a Russian nation, in the modern sense, against which Ukraine defined itself.
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. But https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-would-happen-if-russia-nuked-ukraine.html ’s other recent military actions, including its 2008 invasion of Georgia and its intervention in the Syrian civil war in 2015, were not met with the same enthusiasm. Putin’s Feb. 21 televised speech addressed the dangers of Ukrainian nationalism.
He was not making a case for conscription or for an imminent call up of volunteers. Instead, he was urging Britain to prepare for a mass mobilisation of tens of thousands of people, should war break out. The overall effect means Finland can muster one of Europe's largest armies. The size of its active armed forces is only 19,000 personnel, but it can call on another 238,000 reserves. In Sweden and Norway, conscription is partial - not everyone gets drafted.
This presidential address could serve to galvanize the Russian public to back Putin’s military aspirations. Russia’s military attacks and bombing across Ukraine could lead to the biggest armed conflict in Europe since World War II, Western leaders have warned. Most ordinary Russians are in the middle, trying to make sense of a situation they didn't choose, don't understand and feel powerless to change. 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. Polls in Russia, or any other authoritarian country, are an imprecise measure of opinion because respondents will often tell pollsters what they think the government wants to hear.
- He said the army, as well as the navy, was about "half the size of what it should be" while the RAF was lacking the equipment it needs.
- Finland, Nato's newest member and a country which has an 800-mile border with Russia, has wider conscription.
- It comes after Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said in a speech last week that we are "moving from a post-war to pre-war world" and the UK must ensure its "entire defence ecosystem is ready" to defend its homeland.
When I hear it from Ukrainian people, I begin to doubt that our president’s strategy is wrong. Contrary to Western warnings that Russian President Vladimir Putin is putting forces in place for an attack on the country’s western neighbor, only 13% of Russians think the Kremlin is likely to initiate military action towards Ukraine. Putin on Feb. 22 received Russian lawmakers’ permission to send armed forces abroad. The same day, Putin ratified treaties with the two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine – the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic – that have Russian-backed political leadership. Roman Starovoit, governor of the Kursk region, said Mr Zelensky had proven why Russia’s “special military operation” was necessary. Roman Starovoit, governor of the Kursk region, said Mr Zelensky had proven why Russia’s self-described “special military operation” in Ukraine was necessary.
The educated and the wealthy, many of them urban residents, are fleeing mobilisation. They may be frightened and apprehensive, and not very keen to fight, but they are not ready to break away from the imaginary “national body” whose will and aspirations are expressed for them by Mr Putin. The fraught nature of their decisions to enlist will increase their hostility toward those who make the opposite choice.