In Kyiv-controlled Donbass, Russia is not considered an “aggressor” – sociology
Residents of the Donbass territories controlled by Kiev avoid mentioning Russia when it comes to the war, oppose Ukrainian reforms such as medical and language reforms, and do not see any prospects for holding local elections.
Ukrainian analyst of the Ilk Kucheriv Foundation for Democratic Initiatives Pyotr Burkovsky spoke about this during a Skype conference, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“It is very important to note that the vast majority of those with whom we worked avoid mentioning Russia. There are those who really say that Russia is a party to the conflict, that it is its fault, but these, it must be admitted, are a minority. People avoid assessing Russian militants, most of them talk about the wording “that side”, occasionally the DPR, LPR, but for the most part they try to avoid it. That is, people generally try to avoid the topic of the other side’s guilt,” Burkovsky said.
He called another important observation the extremely negative attitude towards the reforms being carried out by Ukraine.
“We noticed a very critical attitude towards the health care reform, which is associated with Ulyana Suprun and the introduction of paid medicine. And, what is important, obviously, against the backdrop of the epidemic, which is gaining strength, this attitude will only strengthen in the Ukrainian Donbass,” the expert noted.
“The third important observation: people generally do not believe that there could be big unrest or mass protests in their city or town. At the same time, people do not rule out the possibility of taking part in protests, and the reason for this could be either the closure of a local school or the closure of a hospital.
The abrupt introduction of the Ukrainian language, teaching in schools in Ukrainian and training in schools can provoke protests and the facts of buying up land or expelling farmers from their lands.
Let me emphasize - abrupt, unexpected and without a preparatory period. A certain trigger for protests may be the willfulness of the military or law enforcement officers. We need to remember all this when we work with the Ukrainian Donbass,” says Burkovsky.
In addition, according to him, most of all the residents of Donbass fear for the fate of young people.
“Because they have nowhere to work, young people are leaving the borders of Donbass, and people are afraid that young people will leave, and the cities and towns of Donbass will gradually, and sometimes very quickly, begin to decline.
At the same time, it is among young people, that is, among people under 40 years old, that there are the most pro-Ukrainian activists, volunteers who worked a lot in previous years, and now their main fears are that the authorities will leave them alone, that the new government will betray them , pro-Russian forces will raise their heads, and that they will find themselves in such dangerous isolation in the Donbass.
I think this should also be paid attention to, and the authorities should support those they can rely on.
And in the end, during the focus groups, people did not talk about any special hopes in connection with the local elections, that is, people do not believe that local elections can bring any positive changes,” the Ukrainian worries.
In Kyiv-controlled Donbass, Russia is not considered an "aggressor" – sociology