A clear visual proof of how armed Russian "tourists" occupied my Luhansk.
So when pro-Russian bots show up claiming "Donbas wanted to join Russia" - just show them this video and my threads (from Donbas resident).

As I already wrote in my previous thread - on March 1, 2014, the operation to occupy Donbas began. A flood of Russian "tourists" arrived, pretending to be locals and demanding to join Russia. This was recorded in many cities - including Luhansk.

Despite direct orders from their FSB curators not to reveal their presence in Ukraine, many of them were stupid enough to film themselves.

On March 4, 2014, Russian flags were hung all over Luhansk. Russian propaganda immediately called it "Luhansk residents want to join Russia".

But one group of these "activists" couldn’t resist and recorded an archival video for themselves.
Now the osinters have identified some of them 👇 2/4
One of them (the man clearly visible in the screenshot from the video) is Ivan Syrovatsky, a Russian citizen from Voronezh Oblast.

It is exactly him on the video saying he came to Luhansk with Belykov.

Interestingly, he served in the 137th Regiment (Ryazan) in 2013 and was discharged from the Russian army just shortly before these events.

Many of the Russians who took part in the Donbas events at that time had only recently been active-duty Russian servicemen. One theory is that the Russian army itself was recruiting people to travel to Ukraine disguised as "tourists".

1/4 Exactly 12 years ago, Russia began the active phase of the conflict and occupation in Donbas, including in my Luhansk.
In this thread I’ll describe the situation in Luhansk at the time and share my own observations from those days.

On March 1, 2014, the Federation Council of the Russian Federation unanimously approved Putin’s request for permission to use armed forces on Ukrainian territory. Though honestly, it was just a formality - Russian troops were already actively involved in the annexation of Crimea by then.

That same day, a series of carefully organized rallies took place in many cities.

In Luhansk, for the first time in my memory, there were Russian flags everywhere. It was obvious that locals weren’t keeping them at home - at least I didn’t know a single person who did. This, along with many other small details, created an overwhelming feeling of artificiality and fakery.
Not everyone there was actually from Luhansk. People were bused in an organized way from towns and villages all over the Luhansk region.
And Russian “tourists” were also involved. We started noticing far more buses and cars with Russian license plates. All of this was meant to create the illusion of a massive popular uprising.
The photo shows one of the attacks by Russian "tourists" and local collaborators on Ukrainians in Luhansk. 2/4 Interestingly, before March 1 there were no large-scale pro-Russian rallies at all. For example, on February 9, 2014, locals heavily advertised the "Russian March", which ended up gathering only about 70 people (photo attached - that very "Russian March"). Even the organizers themselves complained during the event that, despite all the promotion, fewer than 100 people across the entire Luhansk supported them.

Of course, there were a few massive rallies in support of the then-government. But first, those weren’t pro-Russian rallies - they were purely Ukrainian ones with internal political demands. And second, they were organized by the local authorities, who widely used administrative resources — people were brought straight from factories and plants instead of working their shifts.

That’s why, right up until March 1, 2014 (when Russia started bringing in its "tourists", agent networks, and military), the city remained relatively calm. There were no mass calls to "join Russia". Only a handful of marginal activists, whom nobody took seriously.

The first two photos show the "Russian March". People are holding posters "We are Russians - God is with us" and "Luhansk people don't want to feed Euro-Sodom". The third photo shows a rally in support of the Revolution of Dignity, which was taking place across the street at the same time. The rallies are small (traditionally in Luhansk), but more people gathered in support of Dignity

🧵Thread: Debunking Russian propaganda claiming that "Maidan" forced Russia to annex Crimea. In reality, preparations for this aggression had been underway long before the Revolution of Dignity.

1/8 Today marks 12 years since Russia began its military aggression against Ukraine and launched the active phase of the annexation of Crimea. This date is recognized not only by Ukraine - but by Russia itself.
The Russian Ministry of Defence medal "For the Return of Crimea" is officially dated 20 February 2014 - 18 March 2014.

On that very day Viktor Yanukovych was still President. He gave the order to crush the protests "by any means necessary". February 20 became the bloodiest day of the Revolution of Dignity.

Obviously, an operation to seize part of a sovereign country cannot be prepared in a day or even a week. The active phase began in the summer of 2013, while the strategic planning had been in motion for many years.

Let’s walk through the facts that prove this 👇
2/8
Let’s start with 2008 - the year Russia waged war against Georgia.

Although the signs of Moscow’s desire to annex Crimea had been visible long before: the Tuzla Island conflict, funding of pro-Russian organizations (including the so-called "Crimean Cossacks"), aggressive promotion of Russian citizenship, and the fast-track issuance of Russian passports.

It appears that the weak and toothless reaction of world leaders to Russia’s aggression against Georgia and the occupation of Georgian territories gave Putin the green light for something far more ambitious - a future war against Ukraine.

Immediately after the Georgian war in 2008, Russia began reorganizing the 810th Separate Naval Infantry Regiment into a full brigade, dramatically increasing its manpower. This exact unit would play the central role in the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

From 2008 onward, this brigade conducted regular exercises that specifically practiced the creation and arming of illegal armed formations - "Cossack organizations", "people’s self-defense squads", and so on.
Russian servicemen were put in civilian clothes, issued weapons, and trained to act as supposed "local self-defense forces". In a stunning "coincidence", they were rehearsing exactly what would happen in 2014.

From that same period, close cooperation intensified between the 810th Brigade, the Black Sea Fleet as a whole, and the Crimean Cossacks - groups directly controlled by Russian intelligence and financed by the Kremlin.
All of this was already documented in November 2008(!) in the report "Crimea after the Georgian Crisis" by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), as well as in reports from Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR).

1/6
Today - exactly 12 years ago - the bloody сulmination of the Revolution of Dignity began.
And right in those days, February 18-20, 2014, Russia started its war against Ukraine. The final preparations had been secretly underway for months.
Back then, just like today, skeptics told us Ukrainians could never win. Yanukovych’s repressive machine looked unbeatable.
But in just a few days it collapsed. Yanukovych, his inner circle, and many of his security forces and enforcers fled in panic. Those who stayed behind were later traded for Ukrainian POWs. 2/6
By that point it was already crystal clear: this could not end peacefully.
Protesters had already been killed in January. Hundreds more had been brutally injured in November and December - and no one was ever held accountable.

On top of that, Yanukovych’s coalition rammed! through draconian "dictatorship laws" that crushed the right to protest and freedom of speech.
Just before that, Yanukovych - using his fully corrupt Supreme Court - had already rewritten the Constitution to massively expand presidential power.
It was obvious he had zero intention of stepping down or calling early elections.

On the other side, Ukrainians refused to accept a President with blood on his hands any longer. People weren’t asking for elections in a year or even six months - they demanded them immediately. And a fair trial for those involved in the murder and torture of people
There was no doubt left: the people would not back down.

And a dictator who had already spilled blood… would spill it again.

My previous thread about languages in Ukraine attracted the attention of Kremlin bots and lovers of Russian propaganda. Usually, I rarely respond to such accounts because it makes no sense — there won't be any constructive dialogue. But here there's so many propaganda clichés that I decided to debunk them, because it really pisses off the "vatniks." After all, I've been dealing with this for over 10 years and know the situation from the inside perfectly.
So let's start with these bizarre maps that propagandists draw. Once again, I see maps of elections for Yanukovych and his party, which supposedly prove something. But that's nonsense. A ton of people who once voted for Yanukovych (just like those who speak Russian) are now fighting in the Ukrainian army and gladly eliminating Russians. As I already told in my older threads — Yanukovych in his pre-election program advocated cooperation with both the EU and Russia. Most Ukrainians (despite the bloody history) had a completely positive attitude toward all neighbors, including Russia, because they left history in the past. But it was precisely the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in 2014 that made it clear that Russians haven't changed. The full-scale war of 2022 gave birth to hatred toward murderers, torturers, and rapists.
That's why these maps are long in the history books now. And the reality is to have nothing in common with the aggressor. If you want to look at maps — take a look at the 2019 presidential elections.

#Ukraine #RussianPropaganda

This map is the funniest one. It has appeared many times in replies from Russian bots and trolls. And it was exactly this one that motivated me to write my previous thread.
Let's start with the fact that the real source of this data is unclear. I searched the website of this university — I didn't find this information. I asked Grok and GPT, and in response, I got that nowhere is it confirmed that such research exists. The methodology of this survey or study is unclear. Therefore, it's likely just an empty fake that brainwashed Kremlin trolls carry around.
The second point about this map is the concept of "surzhyk." Essentially, surzhyk is a dialect of the language that varies depending on the region. This is typical for large countries. And also for countries that have been occupied by different states for a long time. Ukraine falls under both categories, so the Ukrainian language is diverse.
And the funniest thing is that many territories are marked as Russian-speaking, even though in those areas people often use not literary Russian, but a characteristic dialect — "surzhyk." Thanks to this, on the Donbas I could often distinguish visiting Russians from locals. And I almost always guessed right. Because the Russian language among locals in the Donbas differs with a Ukrainian tone and Ukrainian words in the Russian dialect.
Ukrainian-based "surzhyk" varies by territory and can include Russian, Polish, or Hungarian words depending on the region. Therefore, this map is complete nonsense — both due to the lack of a source and understanding of the research methodology, and because of introducing the concept of "surzhyk," since "surzhyk" can be considered anything.
But fans of Russian propaganda don't give a damn about sources and facts.

🧵1/5 Russian propaganda often manipulates the fact that the Russian language is widespread in Ukraine, especially in the eastern and southern regions. It claims that Russian-speaking people are Russians, and therefore these regions are ethnically Russian.
In this thread, I'll break down why Russian-speaking Ukrainians appeared and how this situation is changing right now. I'll share my own observations from Donbas before 2014 and how the language landscape has shifted in Ukraine today. I'll also provide historical facts about how the Ukrainian language was suppressed over the past centuries—but still survived. And finally, it will become clear why Russia is, now as always, interested in destroying Ukrainian culture 👇 2/5 I grew up in Donbas in a society where Russian was the dominant language. I attended a Russian-language school — and most schools were like that (the reason why will become clear when I get to the historical facts). But despite the language of everyday communication, the majority were Ukrainians who preserved Ukrainian traditions and often mixed Ukrainian words into their speech.
As a child, I heard Ukrainian only from my great-grandmother, from rural villagers who traditionally kept their language and culture alive, and occasionally on television.
When I started university, I encountered Ukrainian much more often — from professors, artists, cultural figures, and conscious individuals. That's when I began occasionally switching to Ukrainian myself. After the Russian occupation of my city in 2014, I fully switched to the language I now consider my native one.
An interesting observation from my student years: I noticed that people who came to study from Ukrainian-speaking areas of Donbas would speak Russian in public. But when their parents called, they would shyly switch to Ukrainian on the phone.
This can be explained by the fact that since the times of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union, Kremlin propaganda tried to impose the idea that Ukrainian is an artificial dialect spoken only by uneducated people. This propaganda was so powerful that it lingered even after Ukraine's independence, embedding itself in people's minds and making them ashamed of their origins. The situation only began to change after Russia's aggression in 2014.

So, let's walk through the history of the suppression of the Ukrainian language and understand the Kremlin's motivation to turn Ukrainians into Russians👇

Who does Donbas historically really belong to?
As a native of Donbas and someone who knows the history of my homeland well, I couldn't help but laugh at Putin's latest nonsense claiming that Donbas has always been Russian.
🧵1/6
In this thread, I'll share brief historical facts about the region along with my own observations as a local. It might be a lot of text for casual scrolling, but it'll be valuable for anyone who genuinely wants to understand the issue — instead of swallowing empty, manipulative propaganda.
(In the photo: Donetsk, 2014)
#Ukraine #Donbas #RussianPropaganda 2/6 I'll start with my own memories.
I was born and spent my childhood in a small mining town in Donbas. Indeed, there were many Russians among the population — or people who identified as Russian. Most had relatives in Russia, and the overwhelming majority spoke Russian.
But here's what's interesting: everyone who had relatives in Russia was a descendant of migrants from Russia, not the other way around. These were people who had moved to Donbas in the 20th century, rather than locals whose families had emigrated to Russia.
As for truly local people — those whose roots stretched back to the 19th century or earlier in this land — there were very few. My great-grandmother was one of them. She had a distinctly Ukrainian surname and spoke Ukrainian.
Even from these personal observations, it's clear that Donbas only became partially Russian in the 20th century. How exactly that happened will be explained through historical facts further in this thread.

The time has come to debunk one of the myths of Russian propaganda.

I saw this tweet from a Russian asset and it made me laugh. But I realized that many foreigners have no knowledge of Ukrainian history. Therefore, I will try to write briefly about Stepan Bandera, his difference from Andrii Melnyk and the Ukrainian struggle for independence in the middle of the 20th century.

What did I mean when I said that I find it funny to read this piece of Russian propaganda? This is the fact that the Russian asset speaks positively about Melnyk, but most Ukrainians have a cool attitude towards Andriy Melnyk due to the fact that he at a certain period relied on cooperation with the Nazi government with the hope that the Germans would support the restoration of Ukraine's independence. And Stepan Bandera is a symbol of resistance to two bloody dictatorships - Nazism and Communism. This symbolism is clearly illustrated in his biography - Bandera was a prisoner of a German concentration camp, his brothers were killed by the Nazis, and Stepan was killed by communists from the KGB.
But we must start with the fact that after the First World War, Ukraine lost its independence after a short time and was occupied by several states, including the Soviet Union and Poland.

Ukrainians became the largest nation without its own state in Europe. This contributed to the fact that insurgents who fought for the independence of their state appeared on Ukrainian territory. These were different organizations, but in this context we will talk about the organization of Ukrainian nationalists.

Ukrainian nationalists differed from nationalists in some other European countries. If nationalism in imperialist countries is about domination over other nations, then Ukrainian nationalism is about restoring one's own state, culture and language of the Ukrainian nation. This is a consequence of the fact that Ukraine was an occupied colony for centuries.

The organization of Ukrainian nationalists existed mainly in the Ukrainian territories that were in Poland. However, the rebels declared the need to restore the Ukrainian state both on the territory of Poland and on the territory of the Soviet Union. Therefore, they represented a threat to both countries.

Stepan Bandera, together with other rebels, was arrested by the Polish authorities for rebel actions and sentenced to death. Then the Poles reduced the punishment and handed down a sentence - life imprisonment. It should be noted that even under the threat of the death penalty, Bandera did not betray his ideas and proclaimed that Ukraine should become independent.

At that time, the organization of Ukrainian nationalists was headed by Yevhen Konovalets. He actively worked on the diplomatic front and tried to raise the issue of Ukrainian sovereignty in the League of Nations. The Soviet Union did not like this. Therefore, a KGB agent killed Yevhen Konovalts in Rotterdam, where he had been living for the last time. Konovaltsy is buried at the Kroswijk cemetery in Rotterdam.

Continuation of my memories of the beginning of the war in Donbas in 2014.

At the beginning of April, the Kremlin moved to a new stage of the conflict - taking control of administrative buildings, completely suppressing pro-Ukrainian activists and creating falsified referendums… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… There are many facts about the fact that the Russians intervened in the situation in Ukraine and are involved in the seizure of administrative buildings.

One example is the seizure of the building of the Kharkiv State Administration. Then a pro-Russian rally attacked a rally in… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Continuation of the story about the beginning of the war in Donbas in 2014.  I remind you that these are my subjective memories of events as a resident of Donbass.  Some moments I could forget.  But the general picture remains true.

After Yanukovych's escape to Russia, the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… The same situation began to occur in Donetsk and some other regions.  Pro-Russian rallies, which consisted of real people who support Russia, and  sportsmens-"tituski", and provocateurs brought from Russia.
On March 13, the first Ukrainian to die in Donetsk was 22-year-old Dmytro… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

As a resident of Donbas, I was asked to tell about the beginning of war in Donbas in 2014.

But this is a long story. So I'll do it in a few threads over the next few days.

I realized that before I talk about the beginning of the war in Donbas, I need to talk a little about the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… If we turn to the situation in Donbas, then it was calm there. There were also rallies in support of the Revolution of Dignity. Personally, I periodically traveled to Kyiv, and when I returned, I went to local protests.

The share of people who were wary of the possibility of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

It was a difficult almost 2 months of fighting near Bakhmut. Yes, we could not always stop the enemy. But for every meter of our land, the enemy paid a lot of blood.
We did everything we could. And now we have a little rest. I wanted to write that "the enemy paid a high price for every meter of our land." But I saw with my own eyes that most of their soldiers are worthless to Russia.