aiI will start with recent events. Forest fires are raging in many places in Ukraine. This abundance of fires is explained by strong winds, which spread the fire, and mine detonation, which intensifies the flames. But more and more often many Ukrainians are thinking about deliberate arson. And these suspicions are confirmed: it has already become known that occupants drop cans of flammable liquid from drones. Also people have seen motorcyclists scattering burning torches.

aiWhy is this being done? Not only to harm Ukraine as much as possible. But also so that firefighters will go to extinguish burning forests, and there will be no one to put out fires in the places where missiles arrive.

aiWho are they, these motorcyclists? Collaborators who, either out of love for the 'Russian world' or for money, act on the side of the enemy.

aiWe write a lot about the heroes who give their lives for Ukraine's freedom. It is time to talk openly about anti-heroes. They, like viruses in the body, are numerous and diverse. To find cures for these viruses, we need to study them. To understand their nature (motivation of behavior), to try different antidotes.

aiIn my opinion, two main groups can be distinguished among the anti-heroes. The first is ideological: lovers of the 'Russian world,' collaborators. The second is money lovers: representatives of the first group, as a rule, successfully fit into the second group as well.

aiFrom time immemorial and in all countries there are people who are thirsty for profit by any means possible. And the war not only does not change them, but gives them new opportunities for enrichment. This second group are often recruited agents building entire enemy networks inside Ukraine. They are spotters on infrastructure and peaceful neighborhoods for air strikes; they are arsonists of military vehicles; they are organizers of fires. Many are corrupt making money from humanitarian aid, from relocating “ukhilyantivs” abroad to evade accountability, from issuing forged documents, and so on and so forth. 

aiThese citizens do not care whose power they have. The antidote against them should come from legislation and the judiciary: that is, the toughest possible punishment should be prescribed (e.g., life imprisonment with confiscation of property) for any of these crimes.

aiThe first group – the lovers of the 'Russian world' – is more complicated. It is important to understand why even Russian bombs flying at them do not change their pro-Russian position.

aiThe 'ideological' do not want freedom of Ukraine from Russia. They love the 'Russian world.' But, not wanting to move to Russia (say, they love the city where they live), they want Russia to come to them in their locality, and to establish its own orders, First to consider is the familiarity of the language environment. 
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aiThese pro-Russian Ukrainians unfortunately do not pay attention to the fact that Russian orders are now openly fascist. True fans of the 'Russian world' know nothing about fascist orders. They watch Russian channels and read only Russian media. 
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aiOf course, there is no talk of any Russian fascism. They praise Putin, who wants to restore the Soviet Union, and call the bloody war he unleashed for this purpose a “special military operation” to fight the fictitious Ukrainian Nazism. There, the genocide of Ukrainians in Bucha is called a “staging” (and such “buchas” are in every occupied locality), the bombing of civilians is called strikes on military facilities or strikes on Ukrainians by Ukrainians themselves – in order to blame Russia.

aiWhere did the “ideologues” get such unquestioning faith in Russian television? Let's try to figure it out.

aiFans of the “Russian world” are mostly older people who spent part of their lives in the Soviet Union and their children who were brought up in the same spirit.

aiThe Union consisted of 15 republics, including Russia and Ukraine, and the language of interethnic communication in these republics was Russian. At the same time, each republic suppressed its own national language and culture.

aiThus, the population of most of Ukraine (except for Western Ukraine, which became part of the USSR in 1939), became mainly Russian-speaking, because there were several orders of magnitude fewer Ukrainian schools than Russian ones, books were produced mainly in Russian, the vast majority of radio and television programs were in Russian. The full-flowing river of Russian culture overflowed the national rivers.

aiSo, the Russian language, which has become native since childhood, Russian literature, which has also become native, “its own”, have become the magnets that do not let go of many modern Ukrainians, even those who are patriots of their country. And how many Russian-speaking soldiers are fighting on the fronts against the Russian aggressor!

aiAfter Russia launched military operations against Ukraine in 2014, Russian-speaking Ukrainians realized overnight that they were speaking the language of the enemy. Who could have thought that a “brother” with whom there is a common language and culture, with whom there are numerous intertwined kinship ties, would go to war against Ukraine, cutting all ties, violating all international agreements and destroying the entire world order?!

aiFor the majority of Ukrainians it was a shock. And with the beginning of full-scale war on February 24, 2022, when the columns of occupiers moved into the territory of Ukraine from all possible directions, when the Russian aggressor began to bomb Ukrainian cities and villages, many of those who did not think of themselves as separate from Russia had an epiphany. But not all of them did. These “not all” continue to say that Ukraine “bombed Donbass for 8 years” – about attempts to liberate its territory, that Ukrainians are now bombing their own cities, that the atrocities of the Russians in Bucha and elsewhere are all a fabrication, because a Russian person cannot do such things.

aiCollaborators do not think about the fact that the cult of violence has been planted and inculcated in the population since Bolshevik-Stalinist times and has been raised like a flag under Putin. They do not see a crime in the war of conquest that was unleashed, but they see crimes in the consequences that it led to: the “oppression” of the Russian language and literature, the removal or dismantling of monuments to Russian writers and historical figures, the decommunization of the names of streets and squares.

aiIt is they, these “ideologues”, who believe in the ideals trampled by Russia itself, who add oil to the raging fire of war: how many buildings have been destroyed and how many people have died on the tip-off of collaborators! How many patriots of Ukraine died in the occupied territories because of their denunciations!

aiIf we go back 30 years, all of us Ukrainians were also let down by our faith – faith in the inviolability of international agreements, in the security guarantees given to our country by the Budapest Memorandum (1994; guarantors: Russia, America, Great Britain). If then, in 1994, Ukraine, being the third largest nuclear power, would not have given its nuclear arsenal to Russia, at the insistence of the guarantors, the current war would not have happened.

aiAnd then for unnecessary – because safety is guaranteed! – weapons were sold off, the army was downsized, schools and most universities did not study military affairs, and there were no lessons in patriotic education. And here is the result: Ukrainians have to ask other countries for weapons, the army has to be recreated and trained in the midst of hostilities, and patriotic education, little instilled during 30 years of independence, happens on its own – under the blows of the former “brother”.

aiBut, as we see, some citizens do not retrain even under such conditions.

aiWho is to blame and what to do, in the words of Russian classics?

aiOf course, Russia is primarily to blame. And, of course, we ourselves – because of our shortsightedness and gullibility. But what we have is what we have.

aiLet's realize our mistakes and move on. Create our own means of defense, which is already being done. Let us clench our will into a fist and with our spirit not to give up before the enemy, because the truth is on our side, and this should give us strength.

aiAnd fans of “Russian world ” in the new realities – the realities of Russia's genocidal policy towards Ukraine – will eventually fade into the past.