#luhansk will be free

[justacynicalromantic]

Turning 34 today.

Here is to wishing I will one day be able to do the same post from Luhansk like this Syrian guy did from his hometown:

I will take me happening on this post today as a good omen

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

Now Putin is trying to avoid responsibility for his previous crimes by committing new ones—even more serious ones. Meanwhile, official propaganda deceptively presents Putin’s special military operation as Russia’s “existential struggle” or even as a global confrontation with the “satanic West.” In fact, this war is meaningless and destructive for Russia itself. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as of February 19, the losses of the Russian army have already exceeded 400,000 people. But it is not only about the death of people whom Moscow is pushing for a criminal war. The final transformation of Russia into a dictatorship, which occurred after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, has already provoked mass emigration, the volume of which may amount to 1.3 million people. The militarization of economic, cultural, and political life, as well as growing international isolation, are all signs that Russia is deliberately turning itself into an exile state, incapable of productive and mutually beneficial cooperation with the world. This, and not the mythical “conspiracy of the Anglo-Saxons,” which Putin claims, puts an end to the future of the Russian Federation.

The Ukrainian website, UKRINFORM, in an important piece called 10 Facts about [the] Russian-Ukrainian War. The article documents Putin's neverending sewage pipe of lies used to justify the most obscene, genocidal crimes against Ukraine, all for the sake of protecting his dictatorship.

The key quote here is: 'this war is meaningless and destructive for Russia itself'. The death toll of 400 000 soldiers is staggering, and just shows that the Russian terror state places no value whatsoever on human life.

Remember that Putin told Russian soldiers that they would be greeted in Ukraine as liberators, that they were 'denazifying' the country, and that they would quickly gain victory. The Russian Orthodox Church backed these claims, and bathed them in pseudo-religious justifications.

All of these claims were complete lies. And that's precisely why Putin won't visit any of his soldiers on the war front. The lies and death toll are too obvious.

The Wagner Group terrorist chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, discovered far too late that the problem was the Kremlin. He paid for his disagreement with his life.

It is important for Westerners not to fall for these lies, especially the claim that Moscow seeks peace. Russia had the option for peace for at least nine years. Instead, Putin's Mafia regime planned for further war. Russia has the option right now to immediately withdraw from all Ukrainian territory and reinstate the Minsk Agreements. It has refused to do so. So it is Russia that is blocking peace, not Ukraine.

And, as this quote shows, Putin is destroying Russia for his own imperialist delusions. This is always the case with dictators.

[mr-camhed]

This is not hypocrisy or double standard. On the contrary, US And its western cronies have a very consistent standard: if you're a friend of the west, any atrocity you commit will be of full impunity(like the case of Israel and Ukraine between 2014 and 2022), but if you're perceived as a enemy to them, anything you do will be regarded as evil.

So russian and belarusian athletes are banned from competing under their countries' flag for the war in Ukraine but Isreali athletes are still allowed to compete under Isreali's flag despite Isreal's genocide being 4 times as deadly as the Ukrainian invasion?? Fuck Isreal. Fuck Russia. Fuck the Olympic Committee. Free Palestine. Free Ukraine.

[dontforgetukraine]

Results of 1991 Ukrainian Independence Referendum A majority of voters in every region (oblast) in Ukraine voted for independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991.

---

33 years ago, over 29 million Ukrainians defied Moscow's threats and voted to leave the Soviet Union, countering Russia's modern claims that they yearned for unification. This wasn't a regional phenomenon - the referendum on 1 December 1991 succeeded across Ukraine's entire territory, demonstrating a unified desire for sovereignty that Russia still denies today. The evidence is undeniable: 92.3% of voters across ALL regions - including territories Russia now occupies - chose independence. 57 international observers confirmed these results. The stage was set months earlier when Soviet hardliners attempted a desperate coup against Gorbachev in August. Their failure accelerated the USSR's collapse, emboldening Ukraine's parliament to declare independence on August 24. Moscow had tried to prevent this outcome, warning that independence would destabilize the region and threaten Ukrainians' safety. They urged people to remain under Russian control. But the threats failed. From Lviv to Luhansk, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly to break free from Soviet rule, affirming their choice of independence within Ukraine's 1991 borders. Even Russia's President Yeltsin admitted the truth: without Ukraine, the Soviet Union couldn't survive. By 25 December 1991, Ukraine's democratic choice had sealed the USSR's fate. —Euromaidan Press

[irithnova]

The Russian state using ethnic minorities as cannon fodder - with a focus on Buryats

Article written in 2022, update on the Free Buryatia Foundation in September 2023 given at the end of the post.

Putin announced on October 14th 2022 that by the end of October, his partial mobilisation process would be complete

The recruitment target was 300,000. 222,000 were recruited, and it was claimed that there'd be no more plans for future recruitment

The mobilisation process soaked nation wide outrage which lead to mass protests.

It drew in criticism from some of the Russian political elite

The mobilisation process disproportionately affected ethnic minorities/impoverished regions (many impoverished regions have a high ethnic minority population)

Tuva Republic

Regions that held high populations of ethnic minorities bared the brunt of war-related deaths.

Both Ukrainian media and authorities have levelled accusations at Russian ethnic minorities - that they committed war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine

This accusations was made in May 2022 by Lydmyla Denisova, Ukrainian ombudsman for human rights

Buryats and Chechens were being accused of this

This was a form of scapegoating (not to say they 0 ethnic minorities have committed war crimes in Ukraine of course)

The Free Buryat Foundation investigated this and produced a report that challenged the notion that Buryats were ever sent to Bucha, let alone being responsible for the war crimes committed

Victoria Maladaeva is the vice president of the Free Buryatia Foundation.

She said:

Dagestan, Tuva Republic and Buryatia Republic have the highest death tolls

Moscow, with 17 million, had >50 deaths.

Buryatia with only 980,000 had 364

A Buryat is 7.8 x more likely to die in the war compared to an ethnic Russian.

A Tuvan is 10.4x more likely

The biggest losses were at the beginning of the war and numbers gradually decreased.

Mobilisation was first and foremost carried out in ethnic republics

The day Putin announced this, authorities came to Buryatia at night, went into people's homes and took them from their beds.

No one was given draft notices

They even took men with multiple children, men from the same family

Endangered ethnic groups reside in Dagestan

There are very small communities of those people with populations of around 13,000

Despite this, those minorities were still drafted

There are also very small communities in the Sakha Republic.

They are so remote, helicopters are needed to be called for medical treatment

They almost never come because of how remote these communities are

Funnily enough, helicopters came immediately to draft those people upon Putin's announcement

Putin is a Russian imperialist through and through

None Russians are treated like second class citizens

Russian cultural chauvinism is seen even in small things - such as names

Putin would frequently mispronounce Kazakhstan's president's name. If you have an ethnic Buryat name for example, Russians are reluctant to use it, instead assigning you an "easier" Russian name

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev

Unfortunately, many of the people of Buryatia believe in the Russian narrative about Nazi ideology in Ukraine

It is one of the missions of the free Buryatia Foundation to help Buryats understand that this is Russian propaganda

The focus on Buryat/ethnic minority war crimes has a racial element

When an ethnic minority commits a war crime, their ethnicity is singled out

It should not matter the ethnicity of a war criminal

78 Buryat soldiers from the 11th air assault brigade were barred from terminating their contract

They were imprisoned in Luhansk.

Only Ilya Kaminskiy returned. The fate of the other men is unknown

The Free Buryatia Foundation knows they cannot help everyone but they do their best. They help people in terminating their contracts for example and have been quite successful in this.

The Free Buryatia Foundation was established to counter Russian propaganda and to protest the war.

People worldwide took an interest to this, so they founded the free Buryatia Foundation.

The Free Buryatia Foundation is the first ethnic anti war organisation in Russia

They aided in founding anti war organisations in other ethnic regions such as Tuva, Kalmykia, Udmurtia, Sakha

Many Buryats fled to Mongolia and Kazakhstan

Some men were able to come back after being drafted, some were not

The economic situation for Buryatia is dire. It ranked 81st out of 85 of Russia's regions when it came to living standards

Buryats had to spend money on a list of supplies for war that Russia did not provide them

Very recently, on September 1st, Russia banned the Free Buryatia Foundation, labelling them as undesirable and anti Russian.

Here is the website for the Free Buryatia Foundation:

And here is where you can donate:

Please spread around or give what you can.

[annawayne]

I see that you're Ukrainian and I saw two arts with Ukrainian culture. Is there some meanings behind it, references? Could you please tell more? I love seeing artist drawing their culture. It's amazing

OH, anon! You have no idea how it made me happy to know you're curious about my country. And yes, there's a lot to tell, so thank you so much for asking!

I'll try to keep it as short as possible and not turn it into the lecture, so here we go!

So, I have two arts, featuring Ukrainian culture

So, all the jewelry here is traditional Ukrainian jewelry, and not just random. Important note: all Ukrainian culture is about the beauty of layers, in clothes, jewelry, literature, in art.

For example, this one from the left art is called dukach - a medallion, which is supplemented with additional jewelry elements, such as ribbons, bows etc. Annie wears a lion medallion, of course, as a reference to her surname.

Another element, under the dukach, the necklace with the half moons, is called zgrada. The base consists of crosses in two or three rows strung on a string or a dart, in the spaces between them there are tubes or spirals made of brass or copper. Well, the truth is that zgrada can be not only with crosses but also with other elements. Here are half moons that are a reference to another Ukrainian piece of jewelry, lunnitsa. It's a talisman ornament in the form of a crescent with the tips down. Lunnitsa was called to ensure the continuation of the family, it was endowed with the properties of a family talisman, capable of harmonizing the relationship of spouses. It was also believed that the talisman promotes restful sleep, drives away nightmares, and protects the owner from nighttime evil spirits.

Finally, the red necklace that we call namysto. The more layers of necklaces a woman had, the wealthier she was considered. Here Annie wears 10 (!) strings of the namysto, and it's not just a "cheap" gem, it's corals!

Now, about earrings!

Both Armin and Annie wear earrings, and it's the usual shape of the Ukrainian traditional earrings, but we have a small interesting detail here with Armin.

Actually, in both arts Armin is a Cossack - the Ukrainian warrior, who decided against all odds to fight for the independence of Ukraine. All of them were struggling in slavery (not really the "usual" form of slavery but more military like) and under other countries' protectorate, but if we put it VERY simply, they were fed up and started fighting for Ukraine and the freedom of their homeland. That's why they are usually called "people of a free spirit".

And Armin wears earrings in both of his ears and in Cossack culture - it's also the symbol of his status. So, if the Cossask wears it on his left ear - indicates that the Cossack was the only son of his mother; on the right — signals that the man is the last representative of his family; both have a sign that the Cossack is the only child of his parents. So, yeah! Only child Armin!

About the embroidery!

Each region of Ukraine has various embroidery techniques, starting from the color of the threads used and to the ornaments/motifs the shirt is adorned. Both Armin and Annie wear floral and geometry ornaments that are widely used in the central-north part of Ukraine such as the Poltava and Chernihiv regions. But also you can find similar ornaments in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, but all of them differ in colors and shapes.

Now, Annie's flower crown or wreath that we call vinok.

Usually, vinok is worn by girls and unmarried women, sometimes, even after marriage, women wear it, accompanied by a head shawl or kerchief. Flowers here aren't also random, but each of them symbolizes something: malva and peony - beauty, hope, the long lives and symbol of home, of Homeland; centaurea - simple and quiet life.

And ending it all, just want to add that the left art with the ornaments in the background - it's an imitation of one of the traditional Ukrainian ornaments that is widely used for the decoration of walls, plates, cups etc; and for the second one - Ukraine has a lot of sunflower fields, so that's landscape is very dear for me.

Thank you once again for asking, and I hope it was interesting!

[ohsalome]

In 2023, 56% of the time in Ukraine was free of air alerts, while the remaining 44% of the time there were alerts in different regions*.

*excluding Luhansk region and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea

[panimoonchild]

"When I saw victims of Russian genocide being exhumed, I decided to join Ukraine’s army" - said Sarah

- In the infowar, I exploited the fact that Russia hates LGBT community. I said, let's mock them. I'm transgender and I'm going to come at them in a way that they're not expecting.

- What we're seeing in Africa, what we're seeing in the Americas, and what we're seeing as I stated across the Mid and Far East, is all tied in together to the war that we're fighting in Kharkiv, to the war that we're fighting in Donbas. When we liberate Crimea – and we will liberate Crimea – and when we liberate Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, all of Kherson region…When we stop the terrorism here in Ukraine, you're going to see the rest of the world become more free. No doubt about it.

- I was honored to receive the Golden Cross. However, my greatest honor, my greatest badge of victory against the Russians was being officially sanctioned and put on their terrorism list. And so my terrorism designation was truly the capstone to that project, “Russia Hates the Truth”. And ultimately, I hope they have reason to charge me with even worse things. Russia doesn't have a justice system. It’s a failed state, Russia is a terrorist cabal, Russia is a terrorist state.

***

Amen! The link to the full interview:

[mariacallous]

The Russian authorities have designated a Ukrainian meme as a terrorist organization. On Tuesday, the news outlet Fonar reported that the Federal Security Service has identified the “Belgorod People’s Republic” as a subdivision of the Forum of Free States of Post-Russia, which Russia’s Supreme Court banned last November. The “BPR” emerged online as a joke after Russian officials in Belgorod started reporting Ukrainian artillery strikes and cross-border raids in 2022. The meme plays on the so-called “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two proxy entities Russia sustained in eastern Ukraine after 2014 and later annexed outright. 

In August 2022, during a live town hall with Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, one resident mentioned being frightened by rumors about the creation of a “Belgorod People’s Republic.” The governor assured the man that this information was false, saying, “You’re reading the wrong sites.” Gladkov encouraged his audience to stick with “official information” or “data from other channels.”

In November 2024, the Russian Supreme Court ruled that the Forum of Free States of Post-Russia and its 172 “structural subdivisions” are terrorist organizations. In early January 2025, the FSB published a list of these subdivisions, which include the foundations “Asians of Russia,” “Free Buryatia,” “Free Yakutia,” “League of Free Nations,” “Free Idel-Ural,” and others.

[sevaghves]

To clear things up for our Ukrainian friends.

Ukraine didn't condemn Azerbaijan's aggression against Armenia in 2020. Armenia didn't condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine in 2022.

Why?

For some reason Ukrainian political elite considers Artsakh similar to the Donetsk and Luhansk "republics". That's not the case. Artsakh was annexed from Armenia in 1920s by the bolsheviks along with Nakhijevan. The 1st Karabakh war happened because when Artsakh as autonomous republic voted independence during the collapse of USSR, Azeri and Russian forces started military operations against Armenians. For comparison, imagine these 2 regions be recognized as Russian territory to "stop the conflict", Ukrainians in Donetsk and Luhanks organize self-defense units and uprising for reunification with Ukraine and be called separatists.

After the betrayal and war of 2020, when Russia deployed "peacekeepers" to Artsakh, 120000 people in Artsakh became Putin's hostages. That predetermined Armenia's foreign policy for the next 3 years. Every independent move resulted in Azeri attacks on Artsakh and Armenia proper, sanctioned by Putin. Over 140 sq km of Armenian territory became occupied by Azerbaijan. The West refused to help as they didn't want to interfere in the areas of Russian influence.

The war in Ukraine opened the Western eyes to Putin's real objectives. Or rather they could no longer afford to stay blind. Putin's Imperialist agenda arrived at their doorstep.

What can we do as former colonies of Russia to stop this direct and indirect aggression?

First of all recognize each other as sovereign states that are out of Soviet framework of "brotherly" nations. It's okay to have different interests and alliances. But in this fight we have to be united and show understanding for the ways Putin manipulated our countries. We need to be honest and pragmatic with each other.

I wish victory to Armenia in her fight for survival and I wish the same to Ukraine. And just as my Ukrainian friends are focused on their war, I am focused on mine. This doesn't mean we don't care about the other. My family has friends in Ukraine who spend almost every night sheltering from Russian bombing. Some of our Armenian friends are refugees of the 2014 aggression.

And I wish my Russian friends that one day in the future they see their country free from the thugs and fascists that have usurped the power for so long. We all deserve better than this vile chaos.

[andrainbowunicorns]

Ten years ago, the little green men spread across Crimea and the southern-eastern regions of Ukraine to support (= arm) the anti-Maidan cause, culminating in Russia's internationally-unrecognized annexation of Crimea.

In March 2014, Alexei Navalny said: "Putin likes to speak about the 'Russian world' but he is actually making it smaller. […] In Ukraine now, there are no politicians who do not have extreme anti-Russian positions. Being anti-Russian is the key to success now in Ukraine, and that is our fault."

Two years ago, Russia began a “special military operation” to liberate the Donbas by fascists, culminating in the internationally-unrecognized annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia by the Russian Federation.

In March 2022, Alexei Navalny said: "If, to prevent war, we need to fill up the jails and police vans, we will fill up the jails and police vans. Everything has a price and now, in the spring of 2022, we should pay that price."

In February 2024, Russia won the battle of Avdiivka, ominously known as "Bakhmut 2.0” for its violence and horror.

Also in February 2024, Yulia Navalnaya, wife of late Alexei Navalny, vows: "I am addressing you with Alexei's words, in which I very much believe. 'It is not shameful to do little. It is shameful to do nothing. It is shameful to let yourself be frightened.’ We need to make use of every opportunity. To fight against the war, against corruption, against injustice. To fight for fair elections and free speech. To fight to get our country back."

Thank you.

[nicklloydnow]

“Given the public discourse and the attitudes of many Western diplomats and intellectuals over the present war, it increasingly appears that these differences are not recognized by those who (consciously or not) push for a compromise in Ukraine, a kind of “draw.” Many continue to do so, no doubt in good faith and well-intentioned. But history offers abundant evidence that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

So let us first try to define what can be considered a victory for Ukraine, what can be considered a victory for Russia and what can be considered a “draw.”

Ukrainian victory

Ukraine’s victory is the easiest to articulate because Kyiv has clearly defined it and repeatedly emphasized it, mainly through President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In particular, it means a restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity within the pre-2014 borders, future security guarantees, criminal consequences for Russian war crimes and reparations for the material damage caused. Ukrainian membership in NATO and the European Union should also be part of (and a guarantor of) its victory.

Let us add that the legitimacy of these objectives, and accordingly of a Ukrainian victory, is quite strong. They are in accordance with international law, are supported by most of the Ukrainian population and are promoted by legitimate political representatives elected in free and democratic elections.

Russian victory

Victory for Russia is much harder to define, for several reasons. At first, Moscow’s aim in invading Ukraine was to take over the whole of the country and remove its legitimate, democratically elected government. After a blitzkrieg fiasco in the spring of 2022, the goal became taking control of as much of Ukraine as possible, and then annexing four specific regions (Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson) to Russia.

Exactly what the Kremlin’s goal is today is not entirely clear. In one sense, the details do not terribly matter. The fundamental, unquestionable goal of President Vladimir Putin’s Russia can be seen from the outset as denying a Ukrainian victory: preventing Ukraine from existing as an independent, sovereign country that not only controls its own territory but also freely decides its future based on the will of the majority of its people. This is the basic objective that Russia is pursuing in Ukraine and which it has been pursuing ruthlessly and aggressively, in contravention of international law – not only today but since at least 2014.

Two outcomes

In this light, there are not three, but only two essential scenarios for the course of Russia’s war against Ukraine. There is no “draw.” Any outcome other than a Ukrainian victory, as they define it, would qualify as a victory for Russia.

At the same time, Ukraine will not be able to win without the help of its Western allies. While already at historically high levels, this assistance remains insufficient to deliver a Ukrainian victory. And, to reiterate, any compromise, frozen conflict or other form of stalemate means a Russian victory.

Neither Ukraine nor Russia will get to decide which of the two possible scenarios is realized. Both sides are doing and will do everything they can to win, and they cannot do much more than they are now doing. Instead, the winner will be decided by the West. The question is whether it will understand that there are only two viable options and help Ukraine further and faster than it has done so far.

Almost a year ago, I wrote about why I do not consider any compromise with President Putin to be a solution to the war. Over the past year, there has been ample evidence suggesting that a “draw” means victory for Russia. Yet the risk of such an outcome has not declined, but rather increased.”

“A deadlock is exactly what Russian president Vladimir Putin wants, because it allows him to plant the idea of perpetual stalemate in the minds of western leaders who, staring at a difficult economic outlook for 2024, want a settlement.

There are still leaders who rightly care about Kyiv’s need to push Russian troops back to the internationally recognised border. Joe Biden is one who believes the billions of dollars handed to Ukraine are an investment in world peace.

It would be tragic if Biden became a lonely figure. Britain and France are still on board, though their weapons resources are running low. The European Commission is a staunch defender of Ukraine and preparing to welcome it as an EU member. Can the same be said of Italy and Germany?

(…)

Tim Ash, a fellow at the thinktank Chatham House, has argued that the $400bn of Russian capital tied up in western banks and markets should be seized and given to Ukraine for its war effort. At the moment, the funds are merely frozen.

In what he expects to be the first of many such decisions, the international court of arbitration in The Hague ruled last week that Russia must pay $267m in damages to DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, in compensation for assets in Crimea that Russia seized when it illegally annexed the peninsula in 2014.

Without foreign exchange, Russia will struggle to maintain its war effort. Last month, to prevent Russian companies and wealthy individuals taking roubles out of the country, the central bank was forced to issue capital control restrictions. Interest rates also jumped to 15%.

(…)

Russia’s defence budget has risen to the equivalent of 3.9% of GDP this year, from 2.7% in 2021. It will jump by more than 70% in 2024, reaching about 6% of GDP, according to a Reuters assessment of official plans.

And hardware supplied by the US to Kyiv is making a difference. While the Ukrainian army is bogged down as winter approaches, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has issued an intelligence update saying Russian air defence has suffered significant losses. This suggests that if the west can stay the course, Russia’s capability will crumble.

(…)

Ash is among many to argue that the cost of letting Russia grind Ukraine into a defeat will be much higher than that of helping Ukraine prevail. A victorious Putin will pull every lever to bring about economic and political chaos among his enemies. Ukraine’s allies must hang together and stay the course.”

[bllsbailey]

Zelensky Considers Territorial Concessions To Russia In Exchange For NATO Security

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky attends a joint press conference with Denmark’s prime minister at the presidential palace in Kyiv, on November 19, 2024.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is willing to hand over territory to Russia in exchange for NATO protection if it means ending the war. 

“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky said through a translator in an interview with Sky News on Friday. “That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.”

This comes after Zelensky has been adamant about Ukraine continuing to fight until the country was returned to its internationally recognized borders, including Crimea. 

In 2022, Putin annexed four regions in Ukraine, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia, calling them “our citizens forever” in a move that was denounced by Western leaders.

Zelensky hinted that the “NATO umbrella” would not be full membership, something Putin has rejected, but could mean member states providing more individual security guarantees to Ukraine. 

Zelensky wouldn’t say whether he’d be willing to give up more territory in exchange for full NATO membership. 

“No one has offered us to be in NATO with just one part or another part of Ukraine,” he said. He added, “[it] could be possible, but no one offered.”

He said other countries have offered to broker a cease-fire agreement between the two countries but he seemed skeptical, saying it must guarantee “Putin will not come back.”

“We need [NATO protection] very much, otherwise [Putin] will come back,” he said. “Otherwise, how are we going to go to a ceasefire? So for us, it’s very dangerous.”

Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end Russia’s war with Ukraine, with both Putin and Zelensky having said they welcomed it. 

Zelensky’s comments come just a week after a marked shift in the more than two-year war after Ukraine fired eight U.S. supplied long-range missiles into Russia, several of which struck an ammunition supply location. 

“All our partners always look for permission from the United States,” Zelensky told Fox News last week. “If the United States doesn’t give it, Europe will not give.”

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

[darkmaga-returns]

Trump calls Putin. Putin will reign over Ukraine. Iran's IRGC: We aim to kill Trump, Pompeo. Sweden Crushes Free Speech. The Pandemic Treaty is a Fraud. All States Are Empires Of Lies

Lioness of Judah Ministry

Nov 11, 2024

Trump calls Putin – WaPo

The US president-elect has reportedly called the Russian leader to discuss the Ukraine conflict and its potential settlement

US President-elect Donald Trump has called Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine conflict and its potential settlement, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing several people familiar with the matter. The phone call took place on Thursday, shortly after Trump secured his election victory. The US president-elect reportedly urged Putin not to “escalate” the conflict, reminding him of the significant US military presence in Europe, one of the sources told the daily. Apart from that, Trump and Putin spoke about “the goal of peace on the European continent,” with the president-elect expressing interest in follow-up conversations to talk about “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” several other unnamed individuals told the WaPo.

The Clock Is Ticking For Russia To Achieve Its Maximum Goals In The Ukrainian Conflict

Trump’s reported plan for a Western/NATO peacekeeping mission in Ukraine places Russia in the dilemma of either preempting this with another large-scale nationwide offensive, targeting those forces after they enter at the risk of sparking World War III, or tacitly accepting this endgame.

The Wall Street Journal’s report that Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine envisages the creation of an 800-mile demilitarized zone that would be patrolled by Europeans adds a lot of urgency to Russia’s nearly 1000-day-long struggle to achieve its maximum goals in this conflict. The potential entrance of conventional Western/NATO forces into Ukraine as peacekeepers places Russia in the dilemma of accepting yet another “red line” being crossed or risking World War III by targeting them.

Putin will reign over Ukraine

A former NATO commander has predicted that the war in Ukraine will end with the country being divided, with Vladimir Putin ultimately taking control of 20% of its territory.

While Russia currently holds the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Crimea, James Stavridis believes that the Russian president will retain all the areas he has already seized after more than two years of fighting. During an appearance on CNN, the retired military officer even said he would nominate Donald Trump, recently re-elected in the United States, for the Nobel Peace Prize if he kept his promise to end the conflict "within 24 hours."

UK-Ukraine relations worsening – Guardian

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reportedly held off on providing long-range missiles to Kiev

Ukrainian officials believe the relationship between London and Kiev has deteriorated, as the new Labour government has so far failed to deliver long-range missiles, The Guardian reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources. Kiev is growing increasingly “unhappy” as Russian forces gain ground in Donbass at a rate not seen since 2022, the newspaper said. Additionally, the election of Donald Trump in the US has raised concerns about long-term military support from Kiev’s biggest sponsor. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has not yet visited Ukraine four months after assuming office. A senior official in Kiev indicated that a trip would be meaningless unless Starmer committed to providing more Storm Shadow missiles, according to The Guardian.

[head-post]

Nuland Revealed Details of Russia-Ukraine 2022 Talks Collapse, Johnson’s Role Confirmed

In a recent interview, former spokesperson for the US Department of State, Victoria Nuland, spoke out about negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, shedding light on the details of the military conflict.

Nuland said that during the talks, Kyiv and its allies discussed whether a deal with Russia would be favourable. The main condition at the time, she said, was a limit on the specific types of weapons systems Ukraine could have after the deal.

She also confirmed that the story of former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Ukrainian MP David Arakhamia was true. Ukrainian authorities asked for advice regarding the direction of the negotiation process and how the war would develop.

In 2022, Moscow offered Kyiv to end hostilities on condition that Ukraine would not join NATO. However, the country refused neutrality partly due to the advice of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. According to Arakhamia, Johnson allegedly advised Ukraine to abandon the negotiation process.

In my opinion, they [Russia] really believed to the last that they could push us to take neutrality. This was the main point for them: they were ready to end the war if we would accept neutrality like Finland once did. And give a pledge that we would not join NATO. (…) Moreover, when we came back from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kyiv and said that we would not sign anything with them [Russia] at all. And [said] ‘let’s just go to war’.

Johnson travelled to Kyiv in April 2022 and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He promised Kyiv military assistance in the form of 120 armoured vehicles and anti-ship systems, as well as additional loan guarantees worth $500m. The former prime minister also visited the country several times after his resignation.

Consequences of failed talks

As a result of the failure in 2022 to produce the desired outcome, the conflict continues into its third year. Ukraine has already lost large territories, including four regions that Russia incorporated into the Constitution. Moreover, Ukrainian media continue to report the threat of losing defensive positions in the Donetsk region.

Ukrainian economist Oleksiy Kushch said that Ukraine’s population could shrink to ten million people due to migration and a decline in women’s fertility. He specified that only 187,000 children were born in Ukraine in 2023, while 230,000 children were born a year earlier.

Literally in three iterations of three generations in 75 years, Ukraine’s population could shrink to 10 million people. (…) War is a national tragedy. And a demographic crisis is a national catastrophe.

Kushch also noted that the pandemic and border closures worked against Ukraine, as people did not return during a period of relative calm.

Forcibly returning them will not work, because Europe is open and free. As long as there is a war, no one will forcibly return refugees. This is a fundamental principle of humanitarian law: if you ask for asylum from war, Europe gives it. They can extradite only in individual criminal cases, there will be no mass extradition.

The National Bank of Ukraine reported that since the beginning of 2024, 400,000 citizens had already left the country despite the reduction of benefits in European states. Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic received the most Ukrainian refugees. According to the bank, about 6.7 million Ukrainians have left the country since the outbreak of the war.

Meanwhile, Russian troops continue their offensive in Donbas (common name for the Donetsk and Luhansk regions). The Ukrainian army is suffering heavy casualties in an attempt to halt the advance, according to The Economist.

Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are reportedly unable to counterattack due to a lack of manpower. This forces the soldiers to retreat from their positions.

Moreover, the Polish Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reported that the Ukrainian Legion had not found volunteers from among EU residents.  During a July visit to Warsaw, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of the legion, which was supposed to gather volunteers from among Ukrainians permanently residing in Poland and other European countries. However, two months later, Kyiv has not launched official recruitment yet.

THE ARTICLE IS THE AUTHOR’S SPECULATION AND DOES NOT CLAIM TO BE TRUE. ALL INFORMATION IS TAKEN FROM OPEN SOURCES. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY SUBJECTIVE CONCLUSIONS.

Bill Galston for Head-Post.com

[mariacallous]

In recent months, soldiers who have returned from the war against Ukraine have begun visiting Russian schools in droves. They hold “Courage Lessons,” speak to students about “Ukrainian fascists,” show videos from the front, and have the children try on military gear. The Russian authorities have no objections; on the contrary, they've developed their own plans for using servicemen for “patriotic education,” including a special initiative called “Your Hero,” in which demobilized men are taught to work with kids. The independent outlet Verstka recently explained how men with no pedagogical training are turned into school mentors, and the threat this poses to the students themselves. Meduza in English is publishing a translation of the story.

‘I want to forget’

In February, Rosmolodyozh, Russia's federal agency for youth affairs, announced "Your Hero," a reintegration program for servicemen who have returned from the “special military operation zone." According to the agency, servicemen in the program undergo retraining courses to “become integrated into the patriotic youth education system,” which encompasses schools, universities, youth centers, and military-patriotic clubs.

In March, participants gathered at a convention center in Pyatigorsk for a four-day educational seminar. According to the organizers, about 130 demobilized servicemen from several Russian regions attended the event, where they received “free psychological help” and “basic knowledge of pedagogy and psychology for work with young people.” After that, according to the program’s design, the former servicemen went to their regions, apply to local universities, and train there to become youth mentors.

According to participants of the project who spoke to journalists from Verstka, the vast majority of demobilized attendees were from the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics" (or the "DNR" and "LNR") in occupied Ukraine. They claimed that “about 15 people” came to Pyatigorsk from Russian regions. The psychological assistance took the form of a single group meeting with a psychologist, the participants said.

19-year-old Andrey from Makiivka decided to participate in the “Your Hero” project because he “was interested in seeing what they would talk about there.”

When the war began, Andrey was a first-year student at an institute. All of the men at the school, including students, were drafted into the “DNR People’s Militia.” Andrey didn’t want to go to war, but at some point he realized that “constantly sitting at home and hiding” wouldn’t work — “there was commotion in the city, and they were constantly scooping people up.”

“One of my classmates went to the front and told me that he was unloading ammunition,” Andrey recalled. “My friends and I thought that since we were students, we wouldn’t be sent to the front, so we decided to go. Roughly speaking, we went voluntarily, but with the understanding that there was no alternative.”

At the military enlistment office, Andrey and his three friends were “quickly processed and taken away.” The first-year students, who hadn’t even gone through compulsory military service, were given two weeks of accelerated training in which their instructors “let them shoot a bit.” Andrey said that before mobilization, he’d had no interest in weapons, and during training he didn’t even have time to learn how to use a rifle. Still, they assigned him to be a sniper and sent him to Mariupol — “super close to the front.”

At first, Andrey recalled, it was very difficult. There were almost no experienced troops around, and even the commanders of the platoons, squads, and companies didn’t know what they were doing. “At most, they’d been through compulsory service or gotten their rank in a military academy.” During the first battle, the students “shot, realized that nothing would come of it, and retreated. After that, the whole company refused to fight,” said Andrey. “We were told that we’d go to the same place tomorrow, but we said we wouldn’t go. They threatened and intimidated us, but then they took a few men from the company, including me, and sent us to unload ammunition two or three kilometers back from the front.”

Andrey recalled the following months as “a relatively peaceful time.” Closer to summer, the first-year students were moved to another location and offered the choice of joining the artillery, the tanks, or the infantry. Andrey chose the artillery. There, he was first a sniper, then, “purely on paper,” a grenadier and an officer’s driver, and, after that, a senior gunner.

In November 2022, when Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the heads of the “DNR” and “LNR” to demobilize students, Andrey’s nine-month service ended. “Of course I celebrated. Who wouldn’t be happy?” he recalled.

Andrey said the war changed his values: “First of all, my attitude toward money changed. It was my first job, and I’d like to keep the same pay level.” The average 30,000-40,000 ruble salary (about $370-490) in the “DNR” isn’t enough for Andrey now, but for more money he has to go “to big Russia” — to Moscow or St. Petersburg — and he isn’t ready for that yet.

When he returned to his institute, Andrey learned that students who’d taken part in combat operations were offered the chance to go to Pyatigorsk for the “Your Hero” project. Andrey thought he could become a professional mentor and earn money that way. In Pyatigorsk, however, it wasn’t the project’s program that impressed him but the living conditions. “Mashuk is a super new center — it has ramps for disabled people, and everything is great,” Andrey said. “But the best part is the cafeteria. We had so many jokes about the cafeteria — even as far as moving in and living there.”

Andrey only listened to the speakers at the seminar — he didn’t come up with any projects himself. One day, they had a teleconference with the “DNR” youth policy minister and the “LNR” deputy youth policy minister. The officials said, according to Andrey, that former servicemen might soon be forgotten, and that in order to prevent this, they had to be “urgently placed somewhere” — for example, as military training teachers in schools.

Andrey admitted that before his trip to Mashuk, he’d considered participating in patriotic projects. He even liked a seminar participant’s idea to organize an airsoft club for adults and children. But, after a month, he suddenly realized that he didn’t want to be immersed in military culture anymore. “I’ve served, I’ve suffered through it, and I’ve put it out of mind. I want to forget it,” Andrey said. He now plans to finish his studies at the institute and work in telecommunications, his field of study.

‘It's like they're kids, and you're not a kid anymore’

For other former students, however, the war and subsequent participation in the “Your Hero” project have already become a platform for career advancement. Such was the case for Anatoly Yushko, a 20-year-old student in the Donetsk National University Economics Department.

Anatoly volunteered to go to the front, and celebrated his 19th birthday while at war. At first, he was “a simple fighter,” he said. Then, he was made a sniper. “I used to be an assistant to the head of the Young Army Cadets National Movement (Yunarmiya) central HQ, so I knew how a machine gun works and how it shoots, and it was easier for me. Many people were holding a gun for the first time in their lives,” said Anatoly.

Six months later, 19-year-old Anatoly took the post of regiment deputy chief of staff, after he caught his superiors' attention by volunteering to help the leadership with documents. “According to the military's organizational structure, this position should have been held by a major, but they chose me, a private,” he said. Anatoly claimed that he only directly took part in combat at the beginning of his service, when he was a private. “There were no violent clashes — there were skirmishes, but it still wasn’t good,” he said. When asked if he’d ever used weapons to kill during those skirmishes, Anatoly declined to answer, saying it was “an inappropriate question.”

According to Anatoly, after his demobilization in late 2022, he began collecting and delivering humanitarian aid to the front. In March, he attended the “Your Hero” project in Pyatigorsk as the coordinator of a group of students. There, he claimed, he was spotted by officials and journalists. Now, he’s constantly invited to give interviews and asked to speak to young people.

Anatoly sees himself as a mentor and wants to tell young men and women “about the heroes who volunteered to go to the front to defend their homeland,” but he admits that students can’t understand his experience.

“I went on trips to Yekaterinburg after the mobilization, I talked to students there, and they didn’t understand me at all. There’s a chasm between us,” said the now 20-year-old Anatoly. “They seem to empathize with you, but they don’t understand you completely because they’ve never experienced it. It’s like they’re kids, and you’re not a kid anymore. Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know.”

Anatoly, however, has no plans to go into teaching — rather, he sees his future in politics. He wants a job that will earn him as much money as he made at the front: “It’s hard to come back home and get a 2,000-ruble stipend (about $25) after those salaries.”

Anatoly hopes that the younger generation won’t have to go through what he did, but he’s convinced there will always be wars because “history’s cyclical and repeats itself.” He thinks of himself as pro-peace and believes that only those who profit from war can want it. “All civilians want peace,” he said. “But Russian peace,” he immediately added.

 ‘Kids are shown war, and they laugh’

Journalists from Verstka learned that Russian veterans of the war against Ukraine don’t need to take part in training sessions or the “Your Hero” project in order to meet with children and teenagers. They regularly go to schools and hold so-called “Courage Lessons.” Volunteer Emil Vayerovsky from Syktyvkar served as a combat medic and took part in battles in the Kharkiv region. After getting wounded, he returned to his hometown and has since held dozens of meetings for schoolchildren throughout the Komi Republic.

Vayerovsky’s rural school “tour” was organized by the Russian Rural Youth Union’s local branch. An announcement advertising the events read: “Emil is still recovering from a serious injury, but he’s already fully engaged in the patriotic education of the younger generation. In today’s world of fake information, this is especially important, as young people have to get reliable information about what’s happening on the front line and have the opportunity to talk with people who’ve seen the military operations with their own eyes and have taken part in them.”

14-year-old Dmitry M. met the former medic on the morning of April 8 at his village school in Vizinga, when, instead of algebra class, students listened to Vayerovsky give a lecture. Dmitry provided Verstka with a recording of Vayerovsky’s speech to the class. In the recording, Vayerovsky reminded the students of how the Soviet Union fought against Nazism and stated with full confidence that the West, which “was powerless to cope with Russia,” had decided to revive Nazism in modern times. He claimed that when “the Nazis came to power in Ukraine in 2014, they started terrorizing the Donbas.”

“Russia didn’t seek domination,” Vayerovsky said. “We Russians have a beautiful culture, beautiful customs, we are very kind people. Yes, we can become fierce; when it comes to our homeland, a Russian can’t feel at ease if it’s in danger.”

Vayerovsky also spoke about what it was like at the front line — how they had to sit waist-deep in water, how they lacked equipment and supplies, and how an East European Shepherd named Sarmat helped him and his comrades-in-arms. “We all know that dogs have very good hearing. They hear mortar rounds flying through the air faster, they hear soldiers sneaking in the night faster, so you can’t beat a dog — it’ll show you where the enemy is,” Vayerovsky said, with tenderness in his voice.

Sarmat didn’t return from the war — he was blown up by a tripwire-activated IED. But his owner, Andrey Mukhin, had already gotten a new puppy so that he could train him and go back to the war zone. He and Vayerovsky took the puppy, Cherkes, to some meetings. The children, of course, liked the dog very much and were eager to be photographed with him.

Vayerovsky came to the meeting at the school in Vizinga alone, but he brought several from the front with him. Dmitry’s classmates happily tried on protective goggles, camouflage, and tactical gloves before taking pictures with Vayerovsky. Dmitry refused to be a part of the group photo, tried not to look at the military ammunition, and said that, in general, he didn’t feel very well during the meeting.

“I tried to close myself off, to not show emotion, because I was uncomfortable,” the teenager recalled. “He showed us a video from the front — a night battle where you can’t see anything, you can only hear explosions. The soldiers there were joking, and my classmates were laughing about it. It’s not nice when kids are shown war and they laugh.”

The former soldier didn’t tell shocking stories about death, said Dmitry. On the contrary, Vayerovsky said “that everyone was quite positive.” Dmitry could only guess at the purpose of this meeting: “I don’t know what he wanted from us. He said that those who left the country were cowards. Maybe he wanted to convince us that the war was right.”

Vayerovsky, for his part, is certain that these meetings are necessary for children, and that the details of life on the front lines don’t scare or upset them in the slightest. “When they hear the explosions and learn the details, and they understand that our men continue to defend us in spite of this, it calms them,” Vayerovsky told Verstka. “The main purpose of these meetings is to foster courage from our men’s example, from their view of the situation from the trenches, not from the news. Love for our homeland must be taught by personal example. We live in our homeland, and it’s called Russia. It’s worth loving — [and] it’s worth fighting for, if necessary.”

Emil Vayerovsky is 38 years old, according to his VKontakte page. He enlisted as a volunteer in July 2022. He was in medical school at the time and couldn’t, he said, stay home, knowing there weren’t enough doctors and paramedics on the front lines. In the fall of 2022, he was wounded when the car he was riding in was hit by a tank round. In November, Vayerovsky returned home.

When asked why he comes to schools, Vayerovsky said he doesn’t do it for show but out of a sincere conviction that the children need it. “This conflict is precisely the result of not caring about sharing information with the younger generation,” he explained his motives. “It’s pointless to go to war against someone who remembers history and whose weapons are always at the ready. Maybe, the weapons won’t be needed. If you want peace, prepare for war.”

Vayerovsky hopes that the children won’t have to go to war, but he believes that combat training will benefit them, and that it’s better not to burden teachers with it. But Vayerovsky doesn’t want to become an instructor — he plans to return to the front line and has already purchased almost all the necessary equipment. “The only thing left to wait for is the armor. The rest is up to our doctors — if they can make my arm work, I'll go. If they can’t — I’ll look for a place where they take people by their conviction, not their health,” said the volunteer.

Vayerovsky also likes literature. He writes poetry and prose and publishes it on VKontakte and other platforms. His poem “Volunteers,” for example, ends like this:

And we go to the final battle

Not ordered on this mission.

The volunteers’ spirit is strong,

We’ll eradicate the infection!

‘Our children are recruited by the Western media’

By April 2023, there were already hundreds of stories on the social networking site VKontakte of returned contract servicemen, volunteers, and mobilized soldiers meeting with children and teenagers in schools, colleges, universities, and patriotic clubs in Ivanovo, Samara, Podolsk, Smolensk, the Novgorod region, Mariinsk, Voronezh, the Kuban region, and elsewhere. Classes are canceled for the “Courage Lessons” and gala concerts for war participants held in the auditoriums of educational institutions. Children read poems, sing songs, and prepare gifts for the soldiers, while men in camouflage tell them about military life and the goals of the “special military operation.”

In Dubyonki, a village in the Mordovia Republic, serviceman Sergey Chatkin told schoolchildren that “fascism must be stopped" because "otherwise tomorrow these people with swastikas will start bombing and looting our villages and towns.” Chatkin also asked students to write letters to the front. These letters, he said, reinforce the soldiers’ belief that they are “doing the right thing” — after all, “Russians have never been invaders.”

In Russia's Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Dmitry Orlov, a member of the Cossack community “Romanovsky Khutor,” told schoolchildren that being in the war convinced him that Ukrainians have fundamentally changed. “There, I understood that we’re at war with fascists,” he said. Orlov also insisted to the children that Ukrainians were fighting “for dollars,” but Russians were fighting “for the truth.”

After he was wounded, Ruslan Khamutayev, a serviceman in the 98th Guards Airborne Division, came to the Ivanovo region for treatment. During his medical leave, he took part in several youth outreach events. He told journalists that he speaks to schoolchildren so that they will “know the truth” about the war, and that he's convinced that “most people, including our children, are recruited by the Western media."

Khamutayev told Verstka that he’s been serving in the army for the past eight years. He’s regulaly invited to various towns in the Ivanovo region to give schoolchildren lectures on information security. During the lessons, he explains to teenagers “how to recognize fakes and false information in the Western media.” 

Meetings with schoolchildren don’t always go smoothly. While some servicemen, like Emil Vayerovsky from Komi, are quite confident speaking in front of children, others clearly have a hard time dealing with their emotions. Anatoly Shamsutdinov from Bashkortostan, for example, was invited to meet with students at Kaltasinsky School No. 1, his alma mater. Shamsutdinov was mobilized in September 2022, and returned home after being wounded. The school posted a video about the meeting in their VKontakte group.

Elementary, middle, and high school students were gathered together in the auditorium. In the video, the teens are shown smirking and exchanging glances at the moderator’s prompt: “Let’s try to answer the question: who is a hero?” However, a boy of about nine answers sincerely: “Heroes are those who fight for their lives and for ours.”

Anatoly Shamsutdinov, looking nervous and fidgety, says that “the soldiers were happy for everything that came [to the front] in packages” because there weren’t enough clothes, hygiene items, or food, and they had to sleep on the ground.

“I'm not a military man — I didn’t even serve in the army. I graduated from the military department at the university. There was a shortage of officers, so I was drafted. There was no question of going or not, the question was how to explain to my oldest daughter where [I was going]...” Shamsutdinov said, his voice trembling. “It was hard to explain where I was going and for how long.”

Throughout the meeting, teachers encouraged the children, especially the older boys, to ask Shamsutdinov questions “because it should be especially interesting to them.” The older students weren’t very eager to ask about the war, but the elementary students asked lots of questions. When they asked questions that were more naive, the teachers said: “Of course, what did you thing? It’s war — people get killed there.”

‘Total deathly silence’

Sergey Golitsyn, a 48-year-old soldier from Chuvashia, went to Ukraine as a volunteer soldier in March of last year. He served several months in a Chechen unit, and when he returned, he bought equipment and mock weapons and started going to schools to give presentations.

At first, Golitsyn offered to hold a so-called “Courage Lesson” for high-school students. Then, he said, administrators from other schools began asking him to come to them as well.

Golitsyn told Verstka that he’s not satisfied with the formal way schools approach patriotic education, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. “First they’re shown a film, then they listen to a song, and that's where it ends,” he lamented. “To immerse themselves in reality, to get a sense of what’s going on out there, you need meetings with special military operation participants.”

During “Courage Lessons,” Golitsyn has the teenagers put on military uniforms and camouflage nets and lets them take aim with a hunting gun. In a photo from a lesson, little girls in helmets and a boy with a machine gun pose for the camera. Golitsyn said that they were elementary students. At recess, they ran into the assembly hall where the “Courage Lesson” was being held and wanted to try on the equipment themselves. 

Golitsyn believes that his lectures change the students' worldviews. According to him, he "proves" to them that Ukrainians are fascists who hate Russians. For example, he said, he tells teenagers that the AFU shoot soldiers if they refuse to fight against their “Slavic brothers” and then bury them in a pigsty. 

“Schoolchildren tell me after the meetings that they enjoyed it, and that they used to have a different understanding of what was going on over there,” said Golitsyn. “It turns out that they read social media and thought that we didn’t need this ‘special operation.’ But [then, they say,] I gave them the facts and convinced them that it was a completely necessary decision.”

Golitsyn said he likes to achieve “total deathly silence” in the classroom. To do so, he shows schoolchildren an interview with a fellow soldier that he recorded on his phone at the front.

“In the video, an hour before the attack, I ask my fellow soldier, ‘Tell me, for you and me, what motivates us?’” said Golitsyn. “He replies: ‘Specifically, for you and me, I can say that we’re definitely not here for the money — we’re volunteers, following our hearts. We’re here for the destroyed cities, for the peaceful people who were shot, and for our homeland — so that war doesn’t come to us.’”

After this video, Golitsyn claimed, schoolchildren begin to understand that “not everything can be measured in money.”

‘The future defenders of the homeland’

Ekaterina Sudakova is a psychologist who does a lot of work with teenagers. She told Verstka that these meetings with soldiers who are just days out of the trenches are questionable in terms of the children’s psychological safety.

“At the very least, it can create a lot of anxiety in students. Even if a soldier at these meetings doesn’t directly mention any terrible events he witnessed, he still carries a strong emotional charge,” said the psychologist. “It doesn’t matter if he’s worked up, like, ‘we wiped them out,’ or if he’s out of it; it still creates a huge layer of worry.”

People who’ve been through war need psychological rehabilitation first and foremost, and attempting to rehabilitate them through meetings with schoolchildren is a fairly strange approach, Sudakova explained.

“A person experiences things in war where he may not even realize the psychological consequences. It’s essentially impossible to talk about it directly, but this horror is felt at the level of non-verbal communication, at the level of pauses and confusion,” explained the psychologist. “Children observe this, and the whole context of these meetings is set up such that it tells them they’ll soon have to take this person’s place. What does a boy, for example, think about at this moment? What kind of future is offered to him by the school where he goes, in fact, to learn?”

The teenagers with whom Sudakova herself works are usually skeptical of patriotic initiatives. “I’ve long seen a high level of cynicism among teenagers about what school offers them. If this intense patriotic education and talk about defending the homeland lasts a year or two, and we don't see any major changes, children are unlikely to pick up this rhetoric much.”

If the children have long-term exposure, it’s another matter. First, children and teenagers will have a higher level of anxiety. Second, patriotic militaristic rhetoric will teach them that there’s only one right point of view, and that it can’t be opposed, the psychologist explained.

“These kinds of events teach you to hold to an official viewpoint, not to reflect. They most certainly instill conformism, teaching you to keep your head down and stay quiet,” Sudakova said. “Besides, the increase of this military rhetoric will have an effect, for example, on the level of violence in schools. I'm afraid we’ll see that in the long run.”

Children have been hearing the refrain “You’re the future defenders of the homeland” for a long time, but now they’re seeing that these are no longer just empty words. It’s impossible to take that in calmly, Sudakova said. “Just a year ago, the idea that you have to die for your homeland was hypothetical. But now it’s real and affects our lives: you can actually die or come back without a leg. And children should really be thinking about other things.”