The Ukrainian media has admitted that many civilians near the north-eastern front, where a 100,000-strong Russian force is currently advancing, are sympathetic to Russia.
“Subjectively speaking, there are many separatists here,” conceded Yevhen Didkovskyi, a military officer with responsibility for community relations in the north-eastern city of Kupyansk (Kupiansk), in the Kharkov (Kharkiv) region.
Didkovskyi told the Kyiv Independent that the percentage of the local population who are pro-Russia at 50 percent, while police estimated a more modest 15 to 20 percent. Didkovskyi also accused the police of obstructing the military at times, however, while one police officer said some 85 percent of his colleagues co-operated with the Russians when they controlled Kupyansk earlier in the war.
Didkovskyi was even more critical of community leaders than the police: “I come to a village, go into the head’s office and go: ‘Look, I got 30 cold, wet, angry men with guns, can you just find me three empty houses for them to stay?’ He stands there for two hours like: I don’t know,” he complained, seemingly not appreciating how intimidating such a request could seem.
Many Ukrainian citizens, particularly in east, are ethnic Russians, and many more, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, speak Russian rather then Ukrainian as their first language.
