[throwaway4good]

It is very hard to understand why anyone would support Putin and what is going in Ukraine and Belarus, if all your understanding comes western media. However if you talk to these people, you get a different and oddly fascinating perspective.

[Chyzwar]

Last time I spoke with a person from Ukraine. He was saying that they are at war with Russia. In situation where on frontline they cannot shoot back because Russia would paint them as offenders in media. Propaganda machine is so strong that Ukrainian people living in Russia would believe that Ukraine is now a fascist country and would gladly support even more intervention. In the meantime the country is economically struggling, people are leaving the west for work.

If all sources of information are feeding you with propaganda, public institutions are deeply corrupt and your wages/retirement is propped by petro dollar you get people supporting Putin.

What the West should be doing is to support Ukraine defending their territory. Instead, they freeze conflict for 5+ years without resolution.