No, people are not "voluntarily" part of EU. They are forced to, since otherwise they are being presented with the prospective of even greater poverty and external threats (Greece for example; Hungary - one should not be deceived by the election of "pro EU candidate". Not only them of course). And because in effect EU means Germany (and there are a lot of people, surely of my age, who dont want to have nothing to do with post 1930s Germany - if they can).
Do you think it was all that different with USSR, at least after Stalin (remember also that times were different)?
I lived in Vilnius. No "we are under occupation" there (not in the mainstream).. not until 1980s, when the economical gap between USSR and the west became too evident, to my feeling.
But you are presented deliberately with a false (worse, half true) picture of the past. Under the guise of western historiography.
No, not all, though you will be surprised how many convinced communists were even in Lithuania, to pick one example (a fact which today's Lithuania hides).
And do you think the people in Europe are voluntarily a part of your undeclared, but very much existing, empire?
Of course "it" can (the western coalition actually, or more precisely US//UK/ and the fascist Germany once again - oh yes, "Russian propaganda", but the point is we don't use your definition for fascism).
But what do you think will happen with the Russian people living there (the vast majority). Do you plan to rob them of their identity, of their faith, as "Ukraine" did in its territory? Allow executions as in Izyum and Kupyansk (never mentioned by the western media)? More probably "just" "ethnic cleansing", I suppose..
What the hell do you want?
Death and destruction for Russia, this is what the ukranian zombies want. But really it is you who want it, of course. Hadn't it been for Boris Johnson (personifying the anglonazis here), a grandson of an SS officer, and of course "good old" CIA/Pentagon there would probably be no war in the first place.
One can only (bitterly) laugh at your cluelessness and ignorance. After all, they relieved you of the burden to listen to the sides involved, with the complicity of the media and various "dangs". You know, "Russian propaganda", "Prigozhin troll factories", or whatever convinces your "critical" minds.
I can suggest that you read Machiavelli's "Discourses on the first decade of Titus Livius". Maybe then you'll start wondering whether they are telling you all you have to know..
Who cares what you "can" or "cannot" verify (or rather claim that you "cannot verify").
Unless you think Russians are not humans like you, it is everywhere in Russian (telegram channels, for example). So you can choose to trust your "media" whose job is not exactly what they say it is, or go to the sources (and translate, there are no problems with that today.)
I fail to see how this will end the persecution of the Russian people in Donbass, Ukraine and the west in general (censoring comments on western forums is just one of its more innocent aspects). And in Izyum and Kupyansk, when the ukranian forces reentered, they executed Russian people living there thought not to be loyal, of which of course you heard nothing, but I did (and not only there).
And how many schools you (because it is yours damn starlink and other satellites, whether you admit it ir not) destroyed in Donbass and Russia?
And do you say that Russia deliberately targeted children?
In a big difference with Ukraine, there is no nationalistic propaganda in Russia, though you take great care not to notice that. As you don't and didn't notice the normalization of calls to "massacre Russians" in prewar and todays Ukraine (by nationalists, there are millions of people there not daring to speak).
But here the point is that this was a *deliberate* attack on a school, with the scope being quite obviously to provoke a reprisal - and then you first speak about what the Russian reprisal did, and only then, if at all, you mention Starobelsk.
Do you really think that after all these years the people don't understand how the "free world" operates?
Russia invaded a country right on its borders, and which wss for years posing greater and grester very real threat to its security (remember the arms shipments of one Boris Johnson? I do), very much unlike your "national security concerns" which for some reason cause you to attack cpuntries on the other side of the globe, posing no real threat to your country.
"Incredibly insulting" - sorry, but this is an incredibly ignorant thing to say. Millions of people in Ukraine identify themselves even now with the Russian people, but cannot say anything against glorifying ww2 collaborationists and classifying Russians as undermensches, all with tacit encouragement by the west.
As to "the belt of countries Russia invaded".. which ones? Georgia which itself admitted that it itself started the war? Or Abhazia? Do you even understand the absurdity of this, compared for example to what the US does? The scale, do you understand the scale? (I of course don't mean the scale of publications in the western media, maybe this confuses you..)
And my biggest problem is not the Russian government, it is people in the west who gave license to humiliate, hunt, persecute on their social media (remember the permission for "hate speech" against Russians on facebooks etc?) and eventually kill Russian people. If they dare not to bow and renounce their culture, faith, identity as you are required to do in Ukraine and not only there.
As for "loser"..? You think the jews in ww2 cared to be condidered as "losers"? Well, this is more or less how the Russians feel, whether you think it is "Russian propaganda" or not
According to you and Ukraine. And even if it was true (the west had been lying, or distorting facts, about so many other things), you just legitimized a terrorist attack on a school. I can only imagine the outrage had someone done this to one of your or Ukraine schools, even if they were tied to the army.
No, people are not "voluntarily" part of EU. They are forced to, since otherwise they are being presented with the prospective of even greater poverty and external threats (Greece for example; Hungary - one should not be deceived by the election of "pro EU candidate". Not only them of course). And because in effect EU means Germany (and there are a lot of people, surely of my age, who dont want to have nothing to do with post 1930s Germany - if they can).
Do you think it was all that different with USSR, at least after Stalin (remember also that times were different)? I lived in Vilnius. No "we are under occupation" there (not in the mainstream).. not until 1980s, when the economical gap between USSR and the west became too evident, to my feeling.
But you are presented deliberately with a false (worse, half true) picture of the past. Under the guise of western historiography.