Posted on 04/20/2023 7:29:11 AM PDT by Mariner
KOSTYANTYNIVKA, Ukraine — Standing outside her home, pointing out the rocket crater in her driveway, a Ukrainian resident of the front-line town was angry and quick to assign responsibility for the attack.
“They are killing us,” she said. “Our own guys are shelling us.”
The woman, named Natasha, blamed the rocket strike in Kostyantynivka not on the Russian forces that have been attacking the nearby city of Bakhmut and surrounding towns for the past eight months, but on her own forces, the Ukrainian army.
A year into the war, despite suffering months of artillery and rocket strikes at the hands of the Russian military, some residents of towns along the front line in eastern Ukraine still confound officials and the police with their support for Russia.
They repeat Russian propaganda lines, accusing the West of causing the war and the Ukrainian army of shelling homes in order to force people to leave.
“They are doing it on purpose,” Natasha said. “They said people need to be evacuated. They need the land.”
Ukrainian soldiers call them “waiters,” people who refuse to be evacuated and are holding out in their homes in anticipation of a Russian takeover of their region, even as the Russian bombardment endangers their lives. They represent a diminishing minority in Ukraine, which overwhelmingly supports independence from Russia, but nevertheless amount to thousands of civilians.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Southern Russian and Eastern Russians killing each other by the bucket load. Hopefully the Belarussians will have the good sense to stay out of this brother versus brother slaughter.
The Ukrainian military has been shelling Russian speaking Ukrainians since 2014. Patrick Lancaster, an American has been doing on the ground interviews and posting them on YouTube. Just interviewing the citizens that have been bombed and getting their takes on who did it, he will also find fragmentation of the bombs and the stamps, shocker, non of them are Russian, all US made weapons.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.