Although Ukraine 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. I believe that the political system in Russia will be severely degraded in the coming years. Business, housing and community services, medicine, education – everything will sag. After such colossal losses, the army will have to be rebuilt again. Polls have suggested that even though they are the least likely to support the invasion, many still back it. Even then, the support rate decreased by only a few percentage points, from 58% to 52%. Americans held in Russian jails Those objectives do not change, he said, listing denazification, demilitarisation and its neutral status. These are themes he has highlighted from the start of the war. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. And we have the specter of pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine stoking separatist feelings there. Romanovsky is also concerned about young Russian scientists who are important to the future of climate research in the region. Eventually, I believe that we will be able to communicate openly again. As a result, some of the few remaining independent media in Russia have started to censor themselves. For most Russians, television remains the main source of the news. It is firmly controlled by the Kremlin and pumps out relentless war propaganda. Ukrainians are said to shell their own cities, and Russian troops are presented as liberators. Restrictions on reporting are increasingly severe, and access to almost all independent outlets is blocked or limited - or they censor themselves. The rouble (Russia's currency) will fall and people will have it really bad. So this must be avoided. It is not people's fault, but it will be ordinary people who will be hit, he said. But the war has helped set new records - at one point on Monday a dollar cost 113 roubles and a euro, 127. For centuries, Ukrainians have struggled against Russian cultural dominance. Deposits placed in Russian currency began to grow and so did the amount of money Russians invest in the stocks of Russian companies. 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. But Putin’s invasion has accelerated a growing sense of a need to reassert a Ukrainian identity once and for all. Balazs Orban, chief political aide to the prime minister, said Hungary sent a proposal to the EU over the weekend showing it was open to using the budget for the aid package if other caveats were added. Phillips P OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, wrote in an analysis piece that the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House could see the US neuter the Western military alliance. A prominent war expert has warned the US is on the verge of diminishing its support for or even withdrawing from NATO - and this could have catastrophic consequences for Europe. Photos: Ukraine says it’s survived its ‘most difficult winter’ He calculates that the greater (though still limited) involvement of the Russian population in Ukraine may push Russians to support their boys in uniform more strongly. It will drive a wedge between families whose members fight, and those whose run for the border or curse the war. By that, he means that those who were most connected to the outside world might have been less inclined to support Putin's military operation, but now find themselves cut off from the West. That means they're on conflicting sides — and feel the shunning of Russia most of all. Compared with this time last year, Vladimir Putin is stronger, politically more than militarily. There are, however, Russian independent media who still defy government restrictions. For example, Novaya Gazeta blurred out the anti-war poster held up by a protester who interrupted a live news bulletin on Russian state TV. Finns vote in tight presidential race amid 'hybrid operation' claims Unnamed Indian government sources have suggested India wants to distance itself from Russia, according to Reuters news agency. 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. Mr Szijarto will be in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak. 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. 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. Trended data can also be very informative about the direction of changes in public opinion even if the magnitude is exaggerated. 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. But it is difficult to determine how reliable these surveys are, in light of new crackdowns on free speech and dissent in Russia, where even the use of the word “war” to describe the invasion is now a crime. In the meantime, sanctions affect every Russian citizen in their daily lives – both those who support and those who oppose the war, those at home and those abroad. 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. But it recovered to 57% after three weeks in mid-October 2022. Early Thursday morning, any remaining skepticism that their country would invade was put to rest, when Mr. Putin declared a “special military operation” in Ukraine. Putin’s total control of the Russian media mobilized anti-Ukrainian hysteria among Russians in the decade leading up to the Kremlin’s 2014 aggression. For that, I was named ‘Volunteer of the Year’ in my hometown of Odintsovo. People walk next to a cracked panel apartment building in the eastern Siberian city of Yakutsk in 2018. Climate change is causing permafrost, or permanently frozen ground, to thaw across the Arctic. When the earth thaws, it can destabilize building foundations, roads, pipelines and other infrastructure. I got a government email saying that we had until March 14 to download all files from Instagram. But to combat the anxiety, we try to remember our connections with friends and family and enjoy the spring weather. Next, two separatist regions in Donbas, Donetsk and Luhansk, declared their independence from Kyiv. In response, the US, EU, UK and other countries have levelled sanctions, both general and targeted, and doors have closed to Russians around the world, from research institutions to sporting events, in protest at Russia’s invasion. Under a bridge someone has daubed PEACE in big red letters. In his mobilisation speech on September 21st, Mr Putin used choice rhetoric of the party of total war to persuade Russian citizens of the enemy’s proximity and the need to defend the motherland. Many commentators declared that this rhetoric would undermine the fragile support of the majority for the war. Mr Putin has a long record of masterfully manipulating public sentiment. By siding with the more militant part of the pro-war camp, which has long demanded mobilisation, Mr Putin may force doubters to pick a side and thus polarise society.
in Ukraine
