GEORGE NEWS - More than half of the Russian population do not support the Russian-Ukrainian war. So said Ihor Plastun-Syrovatchenko, a Ukrainian historian who addressed George Rotary Club at a dinner on Tuesday.
"This could mean that the bloodshed could cease before the end of the year," he said.
Born in Frunze, Belarus, Plastun-Syrovatchenko is a specialist translator in the Slavic languages and has worked for the European Commission and multinational giants such as Gillette, Braun and Danone.
In his talk to about 70 guests at the George Golf Club, Plastun-Syrovatchenko sketched a fascinating historical, cultural and geopolitical background to the current conflict.
According to him, the war is essentially about Russia's expansionist policy which had already begun in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea.
"Ukraine is the largest and most powerful state in Europe. In the modern world, expansionism is about taking control of intellectual property and geopolitical power. It isn't so much about occupying geographical territory," he said.
About the war
On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which actually began in 2014. The invasion has caused tens of thousands of deaths on both sides and has instigated Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.
Ukraine's military claimed on Tuesday 7 February that the previous 24 hours were the deadliest of the war for Russian troops. It increased its tally with 1 030 Russian military deaths overnight, which brings the total to 133 190.
Russia has also said it killed large numbers of Ukrainian troops in recent weeks, claiming it inflicted 6 500 Ukrainian casualties in the month of January.
These figures could not be independently verified, but the assertion that the fighting was the deadliest so far fits descriptions from both sides of an escalating campaign of close-contact trench warfare in Ukraine's east.
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