You don’t though. You have zero knowledge about Zelensky beyond some high-level english language news articles. You don’t even speak Ukrainian. You’ve never lived in Ukraine.

You are acting in bad faith. Contrarianism for contrarianism’s sake. You are harming the Palestinian cause with your attitude. That’s why I said you don’t actually care and you’re just doing this for theatrics.

Yeah, the multiple loyalties thing is complete BS.

If that was the case Zelensky would have evacuated to Lviv as per American recommendations. He is clearly not a person to give up.

And I didn’t even vote for him in 2019 (wasn’t a big fan of his opponent, but there were other issues at play).

I am just pointing out that you have no clue what you are talking about.

Your polemics don’t really make any sense (if you actually follow official gov relationships between Ukraine and Israel) and you don’t even understand the basics of Ukrainian attitudes towards Israel/Palestine.

So why the fuck are you talking about this with such fake confidence?

I believe he made a statement about converting to Orthodox Christianity. I personally think this was a political move.

To be honest, I don’t think he believes in the religious polemics of Judaism or Ukrainian Orthodox Christianity.

I am talking about the detailed religious polemics. Theological axioms. I am an atheist, but I support the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, smaller (pro-Ukrainian) Christian denominations and Crimean Tartar muslim organizations. I would even go as far as saying the government should support them with tax money.

A counter argument to the article.

I have minimal knowledge of IStories. I have heard about them, but never really read their articles.

I respect Marokhovskaya, but I disagree with her overall approach. Marokhovskaya claims that:

“They’re poisoning Russians,” she said, explaining how she views Kremlin propaganda. “Information in our world is one of the most important things, and I am completely against manipulating people’s minds.”

On what basis is the poisoning theory true? Where is manipulation? Sure, government run media spreads lies, but it’s not like the vast majority of the population doesn’t know this. And they have had access to fully uncensored youtube channels with russian language content (from both organizations in russia and reputable foreign media organizations) since ~2010.

Later in the article the head of IStories the video (YT?) department states:

“We don’t say to them that you’re idiots, that you’re war criminals,” Artem said. “We just present real life in Russia as it is. We’re talking to real people. We’re talking about their problems. We’re always trying to find something that’s interesting to just ordinary people.”

1.1 million russian men have been directly involved in the invasion of Ukraine. Around 1.5 million “civilians” have partaken in russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories. The vast majority of the russian population are genuine supporters of genocidal imperialism.

And I recognize that an organization like IStories has an incentive to downplay the genuine universal support for genocidal imperialism among russian population. But look at it from a practical point of view. What has the russian opposition (and organizations like IStories) achieved in the last ~15? Nothing! They are a complete failure. Coddling the russians’ genocidal imperialist mindset clearly bring no results. So perhaps it is worth considering other approaches?

It has. In my family we celebrate Christmas as a secular family event. But we now meet up on the December 25th not on Jan 7th.

I am just pointing out that you have a sophomoric if not outright childish attitude in this thread.

You’re basically LARPing. If anything the Ukrainian government (privately) has a more negative attitude towards Israel than the public at large (and even with respect to the Ukrainian public, there arguably has been a change over time).

You don’t speak Ukrainian, you’ve never lived in Ukraine. You have no understanding of Ukrainian attitudes around what’s going in Israel/Palestine.

And to be honest, it is reasonable to assume you don’t really care about the plight of the Palestinians. It’s mostly a theatrical thing for you.

The irony of your approach throughout this thread is that the Palestinians support russian genocidal imperialism.

I say this as a Ukrainian who leans towards the Palestinian side.

VOA is a better source than most private news agencies in the US, even though it is a government service.

To start with, it would be good if EU, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand banned visits/residence for russian citizens until russia leaves all occupied territories, hands over all war criminals and provides financial compensation for all damage.

With a explicit notice that they are welcome to play the victim and talk about alleged “russophobia”; this is not going to work.

Realistically, a change in attitudes would require other measures, but this would be a start.

That’s not true. The beginning of the invasion of Ukraine started with the annexation of Crimea in 2014. This was supported by 84% of the population (consistent across 7 years of polling 2014 to 2021). Even with list experiments to account for preference falsification, the support number largely stays the same at 80%.

And support for the full scale invasion was at 65% in 2022 even with preference falsification adjustments.

And then there is the matter of the russian population: 1. electing a KGB goon in 2000 (considered largely free and fair) 2. Reelecting the KGB goon after he shut down mass market independent media (also free and fair) 3. Supporting the comical Medvedev seat warming plan in 2008 4. Electing putin as leader for life in 2012.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree you that Western support has been very weak (if funding is an issue, there was 550 billion in russian assets) and failed to effectively challenge russia.

It’s not just putin though, it is at the very least a strong majority of russian population who are supporters of genocidal imperialism.

And this holds true across every demographic segement (age, income, rural vs. urban, education).

It basically relies on this false stereotype that since Israel is a Jewish state, and Jewish people are inherently manipulative or deceitful, Israel must not be telling the truth.

This almost supremacist rhetoric. With the implication being that the Israeli government due to its superiority over others is inherently incapable of being manipulative or deceitful and any claims to the contrary are anti-antisemitism.

One could interpret this as a racist take.

Too little, too late as usual.

Come on. This is a delusional take.

And insightcrime is not “imperial news”, I read them a lot. They clearly aim for a factual perspective, almost academic in a sense.

And by bringing up imperialism in this context, you really are condoning the actions of those degenerate gang members.

Sounds like this is the work of the Islamic State.

I wonder if the Taliban thugs are able to see the irony of the situation.

More than 100 mostly elderly people were murdered between December 6 and 7 by a gang operating in the Cité Soleil neighborhood, one of the capital’s poorest, according to Haiti’s government and human rights groups. Gang members shot or stabbed victims to death with machetes and knives, and burned bodies in the streets, according to a statement released by the National Human Rights Defense Network (Réseau National de Défense des Droits Humains – RNDDH).

The gang’s leader reportedly ordered the slaughter after being told that elderly people in the area were practicing witchcraft to harm his young son, who had fallen ill. He subsequently died on December 7, according to the RNDDH.

This is intense brutality, chaos and collapse of government authority.

This isn’t political violence in the sense of supporters of different parties killing each other.

These are Mexican drug cartels killing and intimidating politicians to protect their turf, enable corruption and make it more difficult to fight them.

I am not necessarily arguing against what you’re saying, just pointing out that what’s going on in Mexico is primarily linked to drug cartels and not violent conflict based on ideology or political goals.

That’s not good. I was hoping they would move towards more open, inclusive governance.

I guess we’ll see how things develop, but this is not good sign.

I do believe this is true to some degree.

NK may be more fundamentally more aligned with China, but I do think NK at least tries to play them against each.