We know that Putin’s approval rating has shot up in Russia.
But his approval hasn’t been polled in the Ukraine.
It’s obviously gone up there too. A lot of the Russian-identifying people had felt abandoned by him, and now realize he does truly care about them.
Oleksandr Malish, the patrol police chief for the cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk in the Donetsk region, is reluctant to call people suspected of collaborating with Russia Ukrainians.
“I cannot even call these people Ukrainians, even though they have Ukrainian passports and were born here and lived here all their lives,” said Malish. “These are not professional spies who were trained in Moscow and sent here.”
Hey!
You figured out the root of the conflict!
Lots of people with Ukrainian passports do not believe that the “Ukraine” is a country! Therefore, they feel no loyalty to it! They feel a loyalty to race, language and nation!
The two cities he oversees are in the pocket of the Donetsk region still controlled by Ukraine but surrounded by Russian forces on three sides. Part of his team’s job is rooting out and detaining suspected collaborators. Pro-Russian feeling still exists, he said, especially among marginalised sections of the population.
Malish said there were pro-Russia Telegram groups with the “Z” branding that were targeting residents. The administrator of the Telegram group would put out a notice asking for coordinates or photos of a certain place in exchange for money. When a person sent the “goods” to the administrator, they received up to £500 on their bank card, Malish said.
He said his team had found evidence of such Telegram exchanges and bank transfers on the phones of “numerous” suspected collaborators they had detained. He said declined to say exactly how many.
The Guardian was not able to find the Telegram groups Malish described. But it did find public Telegram groups for Kramatorsk and Slovyansk with “Z” branding that carry pro-Russia messaging about the war.
The groups have about 15,000 subscribers. The Guardian was not able to confirm that they were all genuine residents of the two cities and neighbouring villages, though some appeared to be.
Americans do not even understand that “The Ukraine” was a part of Russia until 1991. And for hundreds of years before that.
This doesn’t have anything to do with the USSR, save that during the early part of the USSR, Jews went into the Ukrainian territory of Russia and brutalized and murdered a bunch of people.
So now some of the Ukrainians are siding with Zelensky, a descendent of the brutal Jews, against Russians who had nothing to do with their problems.
However, I think this “pro-Ukrainian independence” faction is very small.
Got sent this ? Same guys ? Is it Russian soldiers dressed in Ukraine uniform? 🤔 what happened to these men ? pic.twitter.com/V5S1RIDrOI
— JC (@Johncow79713664) April 5, 2022