He and his parents were among the last in their village to take a Russian passport, but the pressure was becoming unbearable.
By his third beating at the hands of the Russian soldiers occupying Ukraine’s Kherson region, Vyacheslav Ryabkov caved. The soldiers broke two of his ribs, but his face was not bruised for his unsmiling passport photo, taken in September 2023.
It wasn’t enough.
In December, they caught the welder on his way home from work. Then one slammed his rifle butt down on Ryabkov’s face, smashing the bridge of his nose.
“Why don’t you fight for us? You already have a Russian passport,” they demanded. The beating continued as the 42-year-old fell unconscious.
“Let’s finish this off,” one soldier said. A friend ran for Ryabkov’s mother.
Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship ahead of elections Vladimir Putin has made certain he will win, an Associated Press investigation has found. But accepting a passport means that men living in occupied territory can be drafted to fight against the same Ukrainian army that is trying to free them.
Support seems to plainly be the wrong word. “Not as an enemy, as a competitor” is definetly not “support”. In my opinion calling it that is more than misleading
Oops wrong pic. But I think it also shows how far from this study the claim “30% support putin” is
I mean, I’ve had a couple people parrot the idea that we should be helping Americans instead of helping Ukraine fight against the occupying Russian forces.
If that isn’t supporting Putin, then what is? Is it only support if you blatantly verbalize your support? That’s like the people that think Americans aren’t racist because we aren’t lynching black and brown people in the streets for community entertainment anymore.