Does the Archival Video of a Single Donbas Resident Express the Ukrainian Attitude towards the West?

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On February 15, lawyer Irakli Zakareishvili published a video that allegedly reflects the attitude of the Ukrainian people towards the West and Russia. According to the post’s author, ordinary Ukrainians believe Russia is not the cause for all the troubles, but the “globalist-liberal West.” Zakareishvili’s post creates the impression that ordinary Ukrainians see the main problem is in the West and believe that Russia has not even invaded Ukrainian territories.

The video disseminated on social media is manipulative and represents an archival fragment of the full video, which reflects the opinion of only one of the respondents. In addition, the story was filmed in 2019 and reflected the views of a separatist man living in the Kyiv-controlled area of ​​Donbas. The full story prepared by the Ukrainian TV channel ICTV says that the population is free from pro-Russian sentiments and supports united Ukraine.

On November 4th, 2019, the Ukrainian TV channel ICTV aired a story entitled “We no longer want LNR! How did the Ukrainians in the East change their attitude towards the war?” To find out how Eastern Ukrainians changed their perspectives, the channel’s correspondent, Vladislav Kruglov, interviewed around 150 people. Residents of northern Donbas, Lysychansk and Rubizhne were asked by a reporter if they had freed themselves from pro-Russian sentiments, whether they perceived themselves as part of Ukraine and what they thought of Russia. The story argued that there are noticeable pro-Russian sentiments in Donbas, but a large part of the population supports united Ukraine: “Lysychansk is Ukraine, Donbas is Ukraine, we must stand together.”; “No one in Russia needs us; we are Ukrainians,” said the people in Luhansk Oblast.

However, one of the respondents stated that there was peace and stability before the arrival of the “pro-Ukrainians” in Rubizhne and that their cities were bombed not by Russian but by Ukrainian artillery. Consequently, the assertion that Ukrainians consider the West to be the source of all trouble is based on the position of only one respondent and does not reflect the views of the general public.

On November 4th, 2019, the journalist shared the story on his Facebook account, accompanied by a post stating that 70% of the population in Rubizhne, Northern Donbas and Lysychansk had pro-Ukrainian sentiments, and 30% of the respondents were passionate separatists. Kruglov also called on the Ukrainian Security Service to monitor the contingent that was in favor of secession or federalization from Ukraine.

Later on, the journalist himself published the full excerpt of the interview with a person with separatist views with the following description:

Vladislav Kruglov: “My dears, I want to show you the full excerpt of the interview. Without cuts and edits. The border. Beginning of October 2019. I am conducting a survey in the East to see if the attitude has changed 6 years after the war. I do not know the name of a lover of the Russian world, he did not introduce himself to us. “

In a video published by Kruglov, which lasts 7 minutes, the journalist asks a few questions to the people living in Rubizhne. When asked which would he choose, Russia or Ukraine, the respondent answered that there were no Russian troops in the Luhansk People’s Republic and people were hiding Ukrainian artillery in the basements. According to the same citizen, Rubizhne is the territory of Ukraine, but his and the journalist’s “Ukraines” are different – “Your Ukraine is fascist, my Ukraine is normal” – states the respondent.

Later, Kruglov deleted the post, although the video was widely circulated in the Russian-language media. According to the Kremlin media, people living in the territory controlled by Kyiv in Lugansk do not, in fact, support a united Ukraine. For example, the Russian “Channel One” aired the story: “A Ukrainian journalist could not tell how good life was in the part of the Luhansk People’s Republic controlled by Kyiv.” At the same time, the program of “Russia 24” claimed that a resident of Rubizhne silenced the Ukrainian journalist with only a few phrases.

Pro-Russian media also reported that the respondent from Rubizhne had been arrested after the interview with the Ukrainian journalist. Andrei Marochko, a lieutenant colonel in the Luhansk People’s Republic militia, also wrote about it, although the information about the arrest of a pro-Russian resident cannot be found in official sources.

Information about this resident of the Luhansk region was also shared by the Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shariy. According to him, he managed to get in touch with the “contact” of the allegedly arrested person, who told him that the respondent was fine, at home and that no one had arrested him.

In parallel with the mobilization of military force and armaments by Russia along the borders of Ukraine, pro-Russian actors on the social network have been actively spreading disinformation about the current crisis. For more on the current events in Ukraine, see the materials of “Myth Detector”:


The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.

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Topic: Politics
Country: Russia, Ukraine
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