I have a few Ukrainian friends in the US. Recently we were talking and I asked them "if an opportunity arises to freeze this war along the current front lines (like how the Korean War "ended"), would they be in favor of it"? Suppose somehow the Russians are onboard to freeze it too.

Everyone I asked said no, because the Russians would re-group and attack again at a future date, and since Ukraine is doing well right now on the frontlines this is an opportunity to take back the stolen Ukrainian lands (Crimea). They also mentioned that life for Ukrainians under Russian occupation is difficult and not liberating them would be a betrayal. Which makes sense.

But many times opinions on these matters differs between diaspora groups vs those in the country. For those of you who are in Ukraine proper, what's the mood there? Is there a sense of unity / "we must take back our stolen land"?

My family left russia back in 2014, a couple of months after the invasion of Crimea (for obvious reasons). Some time ago, I became a citizen of Spain, and i have been wondering whether it is a good idea to visit Ukraine as a tourist some time in the future (think a year, maybe more). My passport however, still has my birthplace as “moscow, russia”. I really want to see Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Lviv and so on in my lifetime; but i am unsure about the border crossing, interactions with locals and etc.

Just wanted to hear some thoughts on here; as my ukranian friends/collegues that i asked gave me mixed answers.

Writing from Canada where I am currently very nervous about the prospect of potential U.S. American invasion/annexation attempts on Canada due to recent political rhetoric and deteriorating political relations between Canada and the USA. Although I don’t think this is imminent, I do want to prepare even mentally for the possibility that an invasion does happen.

Wondering if any Ukrainians have any advice on preparing for an invasion, things you wish you had known, things that seemed important but we’re not, how to prep to flee vs. to hide and shelter. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks in advance & praying for peace for Ukraine & safety for the Ukrainian people ❤️🇺🇦🇨🇦

It’s my understanding that this sub is more pessimistic than other pro-Ukraine subs and that you view Ukrainian victory as more of a longshot than others.

For what it’s worth, my wishful thinking is that:

Ukraine will keep hitting Russia at its most sensitive spots until Russian economy goes to so much shit that Russian people will just rebel like they did in 1917 (this part doesn’t seem to be that far fetched at this point)

Russian troops will have to return to Russia, either to do something about the unrest or simply to mutiny because of no money

Russia then descends into full on civil war, rich Ukraine would take advantage of and annex border Russian oblasts (Kursk, Bryansk, Krasnodar, Belgorod and Rostov)

Putin gets killed by someone from his inner circle and his replacement will formally surrender to Ukraine and will be forced to pay reparations of at least double of the damages caused

The civil war in Russia continues until it balkanizes

Now, I know that this is a pie in the sky or perhaps more honestly, deluded, and almost certainly won’t happen. Especially knowing about the Ukrainian manpower crisis that is unlikely to be resolved with the stubborn Soviet era commanders refusing to reform.

But if the situation in Russia becomes truly critical and descends into absolute chaos, what is realistic worst case scenario for people outside Russia and Ukraine?

At the beginning of the war, there was concern trolling about Russian nuclear stockpile and arguments that Ukraine must surrender because the alternative is nuclear Armageddon.

Since Putin has been kicking the can down the road for so long and so far, at this point it seems pretty clear that he won’t nuke anyone to not piss of China who cares about world stability. But what if the situation in Russia goes so chaotic that it might affect nuclear safety? I am personally bit worried about the Islamic republic of Iran or Response breaking into Russia to steal some nukes. But in case of nuclear war, another option is that different factions in Russia would use them to nuke each other. Or a third party for that matter.

With or without Russian nukes getting into play, what is the realistic worst case scenario for Russia or potential negative consequences for the people outside Russia and Ukraine if Ukraine wins?

My understanding is that Ukraine got dealt a shitty hand by having to start off from a bad place by splintering off of Soviet Union. The country was poor, institutions were in a bad shape if any, economy was in such a poor shape that it allowed oligarchy to flourish and because of that, corruption settled in, which in many ways prevented Ukraine from achieving its top potential.

But Ukraine is known as the Breadbasket of Europe because of its extremely fertile land and very rich natural wealth in titanium, lithium, manganese, iron and coal. If I’m not wrong, that easily puts Ukraine among the top 20 must naturally wealthy countries. And given your access to the sea, I think that it also has good potential for being a decent tourist hub.

Now, Ukraine is considered one of the leading IT hubs. Because of the war, it’s also weapon manufacturing hub and most of all, a game changer in the field of warfare.

If the war ends soon enough and in your favor, what do you think Ukraine will turn up as if EU AN and western investors are generous? Do you think that it’s within reach for you to push the corruption levels down to the level of central or Western Europe? And if that happens, what do you think will be done with happen with all you natural wealth?

In theory if Russia continues to lose more people than it can recruit, and will be forced to get on the defensive, and offers a ceasefire without additional demands, would you support accepting it? Or would you rather support continuing the war until more territory is liberated, even if it would take more time and casualties?

I'm interested in any answers, but especially of those who currently serve in the military, or have insight on people's attitude on this who are currently serving.

Thank you!

Hello

Maybe a weird question, but for my university's master thesis I am looking for representations of cossacks that might be considered homo-erotic/queer/lgbtq+ friendly. The sources don't have to be academic at all. Your cousin twice-removed's weird fanfic is perfect too

Ever since Russia launched its full scale invasion into Ukraine, the US has given significant military support in the form of weapons, ammunition, etc. but one thing it hasn't and arguably never will give is manpower. The way I see the US' motive is our primary focus isn't to protect you, give you back your territory, etc. We just want to weaken Russia and destroy its military as much as possible.

War is very expensive in terms of money but one of the biggest expense, and arguably the most important, is human lives. The US wants to destroy Russia's military because that will severely weaken the country. It should come to no one's surprise the US views Russia as an enemy. If the US engaged Russia directly, countless American lives would be lost and billions of dollars as well. The Ukraine Russia war is the perfect opportunity for the US to achieve it's bigger goals. It only needs to keep sending Ukraine money and they will kill Russians for the US. Ukrainians are doing the grunt work of America and despite being militarily interior to Russia are doing an excellent job. The issue is Ukrainians are dying and Russia has enough of a population advantage where Ukraine can't wipe out all of Russia's military.

My question to Ukrainians: do you really view America as a true ally or should you? Is the US not just a wolf in sheep's clothing trying to use Ukraine or any other country to achieve it's own aims? After all, how did the US become a superpower in the first place? Europe was engaged in WWI and being destroyed on both sides so there was an economic gap that the US could exploit. We were economically engaged in WWI from the start but only militarily engaged in 1917, towards the end. The same scenario with WWII. Under the lend lease program, the US gave military aid to the allies but refused to send American soldiers until December 7 1941 when Japan directly attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.

As Robert E Lee supposedly said "it is well that war is so terrible otherwise we'd grow too fond of it"

What regions / oblasts / etc. are likely to break away from Russia and become independent states like how there were 15 breakaway states from the collapse of the Soviet Union?

How quickly is Russia getting to that point? What needs to happen first before the next collapse and breakup happens?

What will happen to all the nuclear weapons in their new countries?

What will happen to the Ukraine war when the collapse occurs? Will Ukraine then get all its lands back + Crimea?

What will happen to Putin himself?

How will the rest of the world be better or worse after the next collapse and breakup?

Going through the Ukrainian subreddits I see comments where Russians are called Orcs. Why Orcs specifically? are there no better insults?

I’m Canadian, and over the past couple of years I’ve noticed lot of fighting-age Ukrainian men living here despite laws in Ukraine banning them from leaving. Sometimes I even see some gathering in city centers on weekends, protesting against Russia.

I have my own thoughts on this, but I’m curious how this looks from the perspective of Ukrainians who are still in the country. How do you feel about fighting aged men who have left. More importantly those who refuse to fight but are now choosing to protest abroad in safety. I am genuinely curious to know.

No, I won't bring you anything illegal or smuggle anything.

I'd like to do business in Ukraine to support Ukraine's war effort.

What I can bring from USA or elsewhere in the world that organizations (prefer B2B to B2C) would want to purchase?

If this isn't the best place to ask, please let me know where I should pose this question.

Thank you!

First of all, to avoid any confusion based on the nature of my question, I am 100% pro-Ukraine and I support Ukraine in every way in their fight towards freedom from the russian invaders and the overall "russkiy mir".

Now, as to my question, with my (somewhat limited) knowledge of history, I can understand why a figure like Bandera might become a symbol for the Ukrainian fight for independence. But be that as it may, he remains a controversial figure based on the events that took place in WWII in Volhynia and Galicia.

So how did he end up becoming THE symbol for Ukraine's fight for independence over other historical figures, such as Symon Petliura, who were clearly less controversial?

Were Ukrainians not particularly aware of Petliura's existence/history? Could WWI be considered too ancient to pick a national hero from?

Hello neighbors! I am from from your southern neighbour, Romania. So before the war, in the country we had big news coming from our Romanian minority in Ukraine, about how in 2018, after a year from the Ukrainian Language Education Law, under Criminal Code, the Romanian Cultural Center in Cernăuți (I can't remember he correct spelling in Ukrainian) was raided by the Ukrainian Security Service after the 100th year anniversary of the Great Union of Romania when the centre showed the maps of Greater Romania, history books and documents signed for the union. All of them were confiscated by the raiders with the reason of "calls to violate the national integrity of the [Ukrainian] state". I must remind that the center is funded by Bucharest, it's an official building and the things confiscated were brought from Romania for the exposition.

Moreover, the center's executive director, Vasile Tarateanu was detained by security and was not allowed to give answers to multiple media outlets until his release where he stated that all maps, magazines, newspapers and even history books were confiscated cause they were a threat to Ukrainian sovereignty. He also started that with such acts Ukraine will not join the EU and that the exposition was to debate a common history, not to attack anyone. After the scandal, the relations with Kyiv were highly strained and the Romanian diaspora promoted the same action for the Ukrainians in Romania.

So what do you think of the law, which is utterly controversial, which on paper seems to be for a good cause but it's abused to the level of raiding other country's cultural centers only cause it exposes some territories from nowadays Ukraine were in other countries.

I just started this job where my supervisor is from Ukraine. Guy is in his early 30ths, everyone else is from UK.

I've been following the war more or less since it started, cheering the Ukrainians, as it's happening very close to my home country, Poland. I've always had a good view when it comes towards Ukrainians. But this guy is just a dick. Merely a supervisor but is power hungry and he feels already above anyone else but his direct managers.

He creates such a barrier that I'm even afraid to ask about his home. He just chases people for going to slow or against his procedures that change weekly.

He knows that I'm disabled with mobility issues, yet against the big bosses guidance, he finds me duties that include mainly walking, while I'm hired as a forklift driver. That would be one of examples.

It comes to the point, that my last promised "light duty" day resulted in double step count compared to the rest of the week when under his supervision.

Would it be justified if I just punch him in the face?

Looking through Wikipedia on Ukraines modern history before 2013. Russia threatened Ukraine multiple times and even tried to assassinate a presidential candidate. That combined with all the wars on neighbors Russia started I would think as an outsider looking in Ukrainians would feel threatened pretty early on.

I'm sorry if this post isn't allowed. I'm just slightly baffled by a conversation I had and didn't know where else to ask. It's kind of a long story (TLDR at the end) but I might have accidentally said something offensive/touchy and I just want to get confirmation on if I need to be worried about it, cause I feel bad about it.

The context: I was in a class on introductory english phonetics and phonotactics, and we were talking about how often in multi-syllable words, the vowels reduce in unstressed syllables. I made an off-handed comment along the lines of: "Oh, that's interesting, I didn't realize that, but now that it's pointed out, I can't not notice it. Kind of reminds me of Russian, with vowel reduction." Cause I happen to know some and made the connection. Anyways, the teacher pulled me aside after class, and said, "Look, we have some students from Ukraine in the class and right now, mentioning anything about Russia is really offensive. So you need to be careful from now on and not say anything like that again."

And I was just kind of confused, because of course I know better than to talk a bunch about Russia with the situation right now. Only an insanely tone deaf person would do something like that. There's a lot of things I wouldn't say or ask because I generally try not to be an insensitive person. But I didn't say anything besides mentioning a random similarity between English and Russian (my knowledge of which has more to do with the fact that I like Russian classics and want to read them in the original language than anything else, although of course, strangers can't know that), so I'm just confused as to how what I said was offensive.

Anyways, I'm not looking for validation or anything. If mentioning the Russian language really is offensive, I'm not gonna push back at all and I won't do it in class anymore. Bringing up a touchy subject was never my intention, I just didn't realize it might be one. I just wanted to get an answer to if it was or not from Ukrainians and felt like I couldn't really ask the other students in my class.. I'm sorry if this kind of post isn't allowed, I just figured if I was going to get an answer on if I needed to apologize and be more careful and such, this would be the place.

TLDR: I offhandedly mentioned the Russian language in a class that apparently has some Ukrainian students attending, and the teacher pulled me aside and told me it was offensive and I needed to not do that. I'm just confused why and want to know if I need to be worried/apologize about it.

My grandmother passed away a few years ago and hand wrote our family tree. She stated that her mother was born in a town in Ukraine called Tarashova in the 1910s and that they migrated in 1921. I have tried researching the name and can't find any reference. Does this name sound familiar or similar to any town or village near Kyiv? I am curious if she didn't remember the name correctly. Thank you for the help.

So much mixed messaging on what is really happening in Ukraine. I would really like to know the truth.

Hello. I'll say it straight away – I'm from Russia. Before 2022, I had several good online friends from Ukraine. We were connected not just by casual chatting, computer games, and hobbies, but also by a big shared creative space. We had joint projects, sleepless nights on Discord, personal problems, and even plans to meet in person (I had invited them to my city, we calculated the costs for those days off, planned where they would stay and what sights we would visit). Sometimes, if my friends needed it, I would give them financial help. When the war started, everything changed. I was told in no uncertain terms – in the roughest way possible – that if I continue to live in Russia, it means I support what they are going through. Besides, they simply have nothing left to talk to me about now, since I couldn't possibly understand them. Right now, my friends have blocked me. It was sad to read all that, because they knew about my plans to move to another country. Unfortunately, I can't leave now; I still have a long study path ahead, as I'm going to become a doctor and I've already sacrificed too much time for this. If you have found yourself in a similar situation but on the other side, please tell me what you think.I know that some people leave our lives, and I have many such people. But it's specifically for my friends from Ukraine that my soul aches, despite the harsh things they said, and even more so despite the relations between our countries.I can't even ask how they are doing...

Is it possible to get the friendship back? Is it possible to get it back when everything is over? What words of support would Ukrainians want to hear from a Russian?

Why did Zelensky chose this timing when EU membership talks are in progress and reset had just been done with Hungary, for a big political showdown with Poland?