R Johansen
Hindustan Times
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Comments by "R Johansen" (@rjohansen9486) on "'Fatherland': Putin Joins Thousands Celebrating First Anniversary Of Ukrainian Regions' Annexation" video.
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DW: Residents in the occupied territories describe how their lives have changed in the past year.
Russia promises prosperity and stability.
In reality, however, an estimated 1 million to 2 million people have fled the Russian-annexed regions of Ukraine this year alone. DW spoke to residents in these regions to learn how their life has changed in the past year.
The Russian currency, the ruble, has now replaced the Ukrainian hryvnia in Donetsk and Luhansk. Maryna, however, worries about the devaluation of the ruble and the resulting inflation.
"Gas has become 70% more expensive, and original replacement parts for foreign cars are no longer available," she complains.
Mariupol residents interviewed by DW complain it is not as easy to get a replacement for a destroyed home as Russian propaganda claims.
"Papers issued by the Russian administration for damaged apartments do not allow for registering ownership for new buildings. Instead, they only provide something like a right to long-term free rent," says Larissa S., a former Mariupol law firm employee.
Teachers forced to take sides
Former teacher Svitlana T. says there were 30 schools in her district before the war, whereas now there are only six.
"There are neither teachers nor pupils in our village," she tells DW. "There are only two families with schoolchildren. They wanted to attend distance learning classes offered by a Ukrainian school, but the Russian occupiers forced the children to attend a 'normal' school in a village 40 kilometers (25 miles) away."
She tried teaching online classes for a Ukrainian school until the spring of 2023, when Russian occupiers in the city began questioning unemployed educators about their sources of income and arrested one of her friends.
Teachers in occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions were very cautious about what they told DW. More and more of them are ready to teach the Russian school curriculum. Even though Ukrainian schools continue paying teachers to give online classes, these teachers can no longer buy anything in Ukrainian currency. Meanwhile, Ukrainian teachers who teach at "Russian" schools face up to three years in prison in Ukraine and a 15-year ban from teaching for collaborating with Russia.
"The new Russian textbooks begin spreading propaganda from the very first page, so I prefer being unemployed," says Svitlana T.
Residents DW spoke to say it is extremely tough to live in the annexed regions without a Russian passport, which is often the only way to access health care. Meanwhile, hospital directors appointed by Russia are regularly prosecuted by Ukraine for collaborating with the enemy.
Ukrainian passport holders cannot get a job or a pension. Without Russian citizenship, they also cannot register a car or real estate, cannot get a SIM card, and are not served in banks.
However, it is still possible to leave the occupied territories with a Ukrainian passport, even if this is difficult. Russian occupiers vigorously check and interrogate such individuals, says Serhij O., who owns a small bus company.
"Everyone is scrutinized, men are interrogated and strip-searched," he says.
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@sumanmajumdar7884 Try to get this into your little head, once and for all.
Disinformation: Ukraine was committing genocide in Donbas for eight years.
Verdict: FAKE NEWS
In order to pursue its expansionist goals in Ukraine, Russia also unleashed information warfare against Ukraine simultaneously with its military aggression. Moreover, it was the “pretext” based on disinformation and falsehoods which Putin used to launch his invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
On 24 February 2022, Putin stated that the goals of the full-scale war, which he calls a “special operation,” are to “protect the population from genocide as well as denazify and demilitarise Ukraine together with the protection of those people who were abused and subjected to genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.” Putin made similar statements at the session of the Human Rights Council in December 2021, saying that “what is happening in Donbas now very much reminds us of genocide.” Russian MFA spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, also made a statement of similar content on 18 February 2022: “The situation [in Donbass] does not resemble a genocide. No, it does not resemble a genocide… It is a genocide…”
The claim that Ukraine was committing genocide in Donbas has become a main propaganda message not only for the Kremlin and Kremlin-run media but in other pro-Russian sources as well. The aim of this disinformation is to proclaim Russia’s actions in Ukraine as legitimate and completely disregard any Kremlin-directed blame. In fact, there is not a single international document or conclusion of any relevant international organisation whatsoever that would confirm Moscow’s allegations. That Putin and the Kremlin are unable to prove that genocide indeed took place in Donbas is confirmed by the fact that Russia has never officially appealed to the UN Genocide Prevention Office or any other international institutions over the issues of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
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