KYIV, Ukraine — During the first months of the war, Yulia Fedotovskyh found a coping mechanism to help her sleep at night: She scrolled Telegram every evening and looked at photos of dead Russian soldiers. burned and exploded.
At first, she said, seeing the images made her feel more secure. But now that the conflict drags on, she says she feels exhausted from the war. She tries to avoid the news and no longer gets satisfaction from the pictures.
“I will scroll Telegram every night before going to bed,” said Ms. Fedotovskyh, 32, public relations director of an information technology company. These days, she adds, “I realize and have accepted that I can die at any moment, and so I just live my life.”
Nearly five months after a bloody war in which Russia is steadily gaining territory, many Ukrainians are still angry and defiant.
The fall of Lysychansk over the weekend, which handed over the heavily contested eastern Luhansk province to Russia, was just the latest in a series of heavy blows, including some of the worst attacks on civilian targets since the Russian invasion in late February. There has been a rocket attack on a shopping center in the city of Kremenchuk that has killed at least 20 people. A strike on a resort town near Odesa left at least 21 people dead. A strike on a residential building in the capital broke through the city’s fragile security.
The move of Russian troops out of the capital at the end of March gave Ukrainians a strong sense of pride in their country and army, and hope that victory could be swift. However, with the fighting showing no sign of abating, people are becoming more angry about the losses and expressing frustration that the Ukrainian government is downplaying the challenges ahead in an effort to raise morale. God.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who captivated the world with his determination and signature green t-shirt, continued to address the Ukrainian people in his resolute nightly speeches and challenge.
“Something needs to be done about the policy of informing the people,” Sergii Neretin, a journalist and former deputy director of the State Film Service of Ukraine, wrote on Facebook.
He noted that Ukrainian officials justified their withdrawal from the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk by saying it would help defend Lysychansk, their last major stronghold in the Luhansk region. Then Lysychansk fell.
“Almost every day we are given weapons, more and more power and videos show how coldly they take down the enemy,” he wrote. “How should we perceive information about our achievements, strengths and weapons supplies in the future?” he asks. “Read between the lines or read them in their own words?”
The war has also fueled a major humanitarian crisis, displacing millions of people and severely affecting the livelihoods of Ukrainians.
According to a poll released by the National Institute for Democracy this week, only 5% of Ukrainians live comfortably on their current income.
However, the majority of Ukrainians still hold a strong faith in the armed forces as well as in Mr. Zelensky, according to the poll.
Svitlana Kolodiy, 34, a crowdfunding expert, said she raised money to support Ukrainian soldiers and resigned herself to the fact that the war would drag on beyond the fall.
And few Ukrainians are interested in compromising with Russia. The NDI poll showed “clearly no interest in trading land for the sake of peace”. Eighty-nine percent of respondents said that the only acceptable scenario would be the reclamation of the entire territory occupied by Russia, including the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014.
“There is no compromise with Russia,” said Mariana Horchenko, a 37-year-old dental worker from Kyiv. “Not after all those who were killed.”
