Indeed, for all the foreboding about societal collapse, facing a common threat could give Britain a new-found sense of unity – something many Ukrainians speak of. Just as there was the “Clap for Carers” during the pandemic, similar rituals might take place for those serving at the front. And for every shirker or draft-dodger, others might take pride in national duty, be it manning a machine gun post or cleaning the streets. The logistics of training a “Citizen Army” are also formidable, according to one former Territorial Army (TA) soldier. “If you are talking about mass mobilisation to defend the homeland, that is hundreds of thousands of people,” he said. 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. Russian companies could end up cutting hours or stopping production as sanctions bite. Russian troops made two attempts to storm the presidential compound, according to his adviser. This is backed by exercises (at least two this year) openly testing the Russian military’s ability to fire nuclear warheads at Western targets and protect Russia from possible counter-strikes. Throughout the war, researchers have been trying to understand what factors would reduce public support in Russia. This war is based in no small part on dehumanizing Ukrainians as a group. On 27 May, Finance Minister Siluanov admitted that “money, huge resources are needed for the special operation”. https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-is-a-false-flag-operation-in-ukraine.html confirmed that 8 trillion roubles (USD $120b) were required for the stimulus budget. Sanctions are starting to bite and will set the Russian economy - which is not able to produce a huge range of goods without foreign technology or parts – back for decades. Overall, unemployment is set to rise while GDP is unlikely to grow. Much of the fighting appears to be centred around the east of the country. Russia’s Putin says ‘obvious’ Ukraine shot down plane over Belgorod But even though justification of the Ukraine invasion can be found among Russians, there have been no demonstrations of support. According to the last full census taken in 2001, 17.3 per cent of the citizens of independent Ukraine identified themselves as ethnic Russians. This was a decline of almost five percentage points from 1989, reflecting in part an out-migration of Russians after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The invasion of Ukraine is just an expansion and escalation of the earlier hybrid war. Putin nurses a deep sense of grievance over the loss of Russia’s power and influence since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. In a military that has long had systemic morale problems, that’s a recipe for battlefield disaster. Yet Volkov added that this tolerance, however passive, is likely to remain quite stable, even strong. “If I watched different channels, I would probably have a different opinion, but I don’t watch them,” she said. 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. Germany to Send Weapons to Ukraine in Policy Reversal For centuries, Ukrainians have struggled against Russian cultural dominance. A short respite came with the country’s independence, but then, in 2014, Vladimir Putin’s aggressions began in Crimea, and carried on afterward in the Donbas. The struggle for identity is further complicated by the fact that many Ukrainians grew up in Russian-speaking households. We have VK (a Russian substitute for Facebook), but it’s not the same. “The formation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state, aggressive towards Russia, is comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us,” as he put it in his 2021 essay. Russia has captured the town of Soledar this year and has hopes of seizing the eastern city of Bakhmut on the road to key cities to the west, and of recapturing territory it lost last autumn. 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. Tatyana*, 28, from Moscow, currently in Germany – ‘My parents can justify the war in their heads. I can’t understand why’ But 66 percent of Russians aged between 18 and 24 have a positive or very positive attitude toward Ukraine. 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. The Crimea consensus and the symbolic might of state institutions remained, but they lost their power to mobilize. For a few years, the unprecedented patriotic surge of 2014 served as symbolic compensation for the socioeconomic problems that had already begun. Russians lapped up the real and imaginary threats that were fed to them, and generally assessed military action as justified, defensive, and/or preventative. On the Ukrainian side, ultra-nationalist militias could work to undermine any agreement with Russia that they believe gives away too much, as they threatened during pre-war negotiations aimed at preventing the Russian invasion. A month into the invasion and his campaign goals were dramatically scaled back after a retreat from Kyiv and Chernihiv. The main goal became the liberation of Donbas - broadly referring to Ukraine's two industrial regions in the east of Luhansk and Donetsk. President Putin never said it out loud, but high on the agenda was toppling the government of Ukraine's elected president. The enemy has designated me as target number one; my family is target number two, said Volodymyr Zelensky. Some parents have even left their newborns at the hospital, perhaps hoping to give them a chance at life in the one place with decent electricity and water. Any number of things, ranging from Russian reinforcements to the fall of besieged Mariupol, could give the war effort new life. Next, two separatist regions in Donbas, Donetsk and Luhansk, declared their independence from Kyiv. The United States maintains by far the world's most powerful nuclear stockpile, but with the US out of the mix, the French and British, with their much smaller arsenals, would be Europe’s only nuclear deterrent, Mr OBrien says.
https://euronewstop.co.uk/what-is-a-false-flag-operation-in-ukraine.html
