Tribune. On February 24, the Russian Federation officially invaded Ukraine. The invasion followed several aggressive and paranoid statements on the part of President Vladimir Putin, as well as other representatives of the Russian authorities who decided to recognize two “popular republics” in Donbass areas occupied by Russia. However, no movement of bonds were observed in the streets of Russia after these ads.
The Kremlin and its representatives have continued to talk about the alleged suffering endured by the Russians of the Donbass, allegedly threatened by the Ukrainian authorities. But in Russia, the propaganda of the Kremlin does not seem to have moved anyone.
In 2014, the situation was different. The vast majority of Russians supported and rejoiced the illegal annexation of Crimea. The Ukrainian peninsula was recorded in the mythology of Imperial Russia and the idea of integrating Crimea into Russia was at the heart of the cultural production of post-Soviet Russia. Donbass, on the other hand, has never been part of the traditional mythology of Imperial Russia. That is why, in 2014, the Kremlin has served the Russians the lie that Ukraine gave a real war against his Russian populations. Propaganda had worked very well and helped convince at least half of the Russian society that the country needed to support the “republics” to protect the Russians living on Ukrainian territory.
But even in 2014, only a minority of Russians approved the idea of military support for “republics”. Eight years after the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, only a small fraction of the population still believes that Ukraine persecutes populations of Russian origin. It is the armed separatism with Moscow’s military, economic and political support that poses a problem in Kiev, not the ethnic origin of the separatists.
Such enormity
Most of the Ukrainian military who died in defending their country of Russian aggression originated from the center and eastern Ukraine, the same where the Russians form a consistent part of the population. If you hear Ukrainian soldiers and officers discuss between them when they are rest, you would find that most of them speak in Russian. In addition, in the last election, a large part of the Ukrainians elected a Russian-speaking actor of Jewish origin, Volodymyr Zelensky, the current president – which denies the fact that the Ukrainian society would have a problem with the Russian populations or, of elsewhere, with the Jews.
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