Public sentiment regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict is highly polarized, with factions expressing strong support for Russia while others condemn its actions and advocate for Ukrainian resilience. Many comments reveal frustration at ongoing violence and a call for decisive international action. A notable trend is the recognition of the complexities of the geopolitical landscape, including anti-Western sentiments and criticism of global inaction towards non-European conflicts.

Russia

Ukraine

International Leaders

People picture wars in their head as burning hot and fast, but the reality is that they're all pretty long affairs. This is just the first true "war" of most young people's lifetimes.

The USA spent over 8 years in vietnam.

WWII was 6 years.

WWI was 4 years.

Civil war was 4 years.

Revolutionary war was 8 years.

GFrohman

Putin doesn’t want to stop because Russia is currently (slowly) gaining territory on the battlefield.

A ceasefire isn’t necessarily in Ukraine’s interest, either, for several reasons:

1. It would probably mean essentially giving up on lost territories to achieve a ceasefire

2. Sanctions and isolation are gradually bleeding Russia dry, and Ukraine wouldn’t want the pressure taken off them

3. Any ceasefire with Russia would inevitably be temporary and would give Russia breathing space to recruit and train new forces and rearm for another attack, something Russia can do much faster than Ukraine

Norwester77

As wars go 3 and half years is not very long. If you [sort the list](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_by_duration) by duration you'll fine a decent handful that are less than 3 years and then hundreds that are longer.

xervir-445

Because the Western countries are willing to provide enough Aid to limit Russia's advance, but not enough Aid to wipe them out.

Concise_Pirate

When Biden said Russia was getting ready to invade Ukraine, I thought "Don't be ridiculous.  It'll bog down and drag on for years and Putin knows it."  Apparently I was half right?

When it actually happened, my next thought was Richard Thompson should prepare a Russian language version of Dad's Gonna Kill Me.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-yySxecVAg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-yySxecVAg)

[https://genius.com/Richard-thompson-dads-gonna-kill-me-lyrics](https://genius.com/Richard-thompson-dads-gonna-kill-me-lyrics)

What person in their right mind ***did not*** think the Ukraine invasion was going to turn into a years long clusterfuck?

cheesewiz_man

Hoo boy, here we go.

__It's 1917, and Woodrow Wilson is the U.S. President.__

&gt; by the beginning of World War I, the Donets Basin had developed into the principal iron and steel producing region of the Russian Empire. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s Five-Year Plans greatly accelerated industrial development in the Donbas during the interwar years, albeit at an enormous human cost to the Ukrainian peasantry. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian peasants were deported to Siberia, and millions perished as a result of Stalin’s man-made famine

&gt;  World War II caused heavy damage to mines, plants, and towns. Many industrial assets were destroyed by the Soviets ahead of the German advance as part of their scorched-earth retreat, and the local population suffered brutal treatment under Nazi occupation

&gt; Throughout the postwar Soviet period, the Donbas remained a key centre of heavy industry and coal production

&gt; With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Donbas became a major industrial engine of the economy of independent Ukraine

&gt; In 2004 Ukrainian Pres. Leonid Kuchma presented Yanukovych as his successor, but Yanukovych faced a strong challenge from opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko. During the presidential campaign, Yushchenko was prevented from speaking in the Donbas by local authorities, and he became seriously ill from dioxin poisoning in an apparent assassination attempt

&gt; Yanokovych was declared victorious, however, a result that was quickly recognized by Russian President Vladimir Putin

&gt; Meanwhile, in the Donbas, a meeting of _Moscow-supported politicians_ recognized Yanukovych as president and considered a referendum on whether the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk should become autonomous and ultimately secede from Ukraine and join Russia

&gt; Yanukovych was elected president in 2010, and he immediately pivoted away from the pro-European course that Yushchenko had set in favor of a strongly pro-Russian foreign and domestic policy

__Now, we're approaching the tail end of Obama's Presidency.__

&gt; In February 2014 Yanukovych attempted to quash the demonstration with a bloody crackdown that killed dozens of protesters and destroyed his political base. Impeached by an overwhelming parliamentary majority that included members of his own party, Yanukovych fled to Russia. Within days Putin, deprived of his lever in Kyiv, invaded the Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea

&gt; __During the summer of 2014, the Ukrainian military pushed back Russian and separatist forces throughout the Donbas__, recapturing the cities of Mariupol, Slov’yansk, and Kramatorsk and waging a pitched battle for control of the Donetsk airport

&gt; _Several attempts were made to negotiate a cease-fire_, and __in February 2015 talks in Minsk, Belarus, led to an agreement that saw most heavy weapons being withdrawn from the line__ of contact that ran through the Donbas

&gt; by 2022 the war in the Donbas had claimed more than 14,000 lives. From the beginning of hostilities, Putin had denied—implausibly—the involvement of Russian personnel in the Donbas war, _but in late 2021 it appeared that Russia was preparing for overt military action against Ukraine_

So you see, this shite has been going on for quite some time.

joelfarris

Putin can’t afford to “not win.”

Ukraine wants to continue to exist.

chrstgtr

Because neither side is willing to make any concessions. 

Russia wants to keep most of the Ukrainian territory it has captured without future security guarantees for Ukraine. 

Ukraine isn't willing to cede even a single square inch of land.

readySponge07

No-Profession422

The soviets were in Afghanistan for ten years. The US and its allies were in Afghanistan for twenty. Three and a half is nothing.

Revxmaciver

So for a war to end, either one side or the other must "win"--that is, achieve its objectives (such as conquering all of Ukraine, as Russia has stated as its objective--or reclaiming all of Ukraine (including Crimea, annexed in 2014) for Ukraine, as Ukraine as stated as its objective), or one side or both sides must exhaust its ability to fight by running out of men or materiel to conduct the war. 

(Running out of materiel to conduct the war does not necessarily mean the other side can automatically achieve its objectives.)

But ultimately both sides must agree to stop fighting--or at least agree that it is no longer able to continue fighting. Or both sides simply run out of the ability to fight: all that is left on the battle field are the dead, and tired soldiers armed with nothing but sticks and rocks and a desire to just go home.

----

Russia has not achieved its objective of conquering all of Ukraine, and Russia has repeatedly stated it has no desire to change its objectives.

Ukraine has not achieves its objective of reclaiming all of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, and Ukraine has repeatedly stated it has no desire to change its objectives.

So we're in the 'last man standing' part of this war where both sides will exhaust themselves.

And really, the only thing that can change the course of history here is if someone assassinated the leadership of Russia, and new leadership took its place which decided the war is not worth continuing.

And I don't think the same thing can be said about Ukraine--because Ukraine is the side that got invaded. An assassination of Ukrainian leadership would simply create martyrs.

w3woody

You are only aware of the last few years, when Ukrainians were as war since 2014. 

Some conflicts are very long but not always very intense. Some conflicts have long periods when nothing happens. Some never end officially but are at risk of being restarted and some aren’t. 

For example Russia never signed post WW2 peace treaty with Japan. 

Azerbaijan and Armenia had on an off conflicts since 80s (?). It finally ended this year ( or so we hope)

HVP2019

Ukraine’s allies are providing enough support to maintain the war without being able to push back. They’re hoping Russia will burn out and collapse, but everyone has underestimated their ability to keep fighting and resupplying the front with men and weapons. 

This could easily go on for another 5 years with Russia making slow but steady progress.

Staar69

People forget that this is just the war making the western news, there are over 110 wars being fought right now. 

If this is as advanced as humans can get, it’s a fucking embarrassment. Fighting over land, money and religion. We are truly thick as a species.

Choice-Ad-2725

I heard it was supposed to end the first day that Trump became president

Silly_Sense_8968

Russia has unofficially been at war with the West for sometime now:
- Ukraine
- Crimea
- Interference in Moldova and Romanian
- War in Georgia
- Poisoning of Litvinenko and the Skripals
- Countless hacks against the West
- Interference in UK and US elections

Are just a handful of them.

Putin wants to appear powerful and control the narrative. And he is doing so, aided by a consistently weak response from Western leaders. And at the rate we're going, the response will be even weaker. So expect it to last much longer because Putin won't just suddenly withdraw.

Cult-Film-Fan-999

I highly suggest watching the YT channel “Perun” who covers this topic and many more, and goes pretty in-depth on them too.

DD-557

stefan771

Because wars lasted longer then you think

Va1crist

It is not 'got tired' it is needed the war to end or it was not possible to continue the war.

When America revolted against British rule etc Britain send some resources to take back their territory, the Americans resisted etc this went on for some time before Britain, who was dealing with Spain and France in conflict, along with all the other stuff going on said 'out of all the problems we have right now, the colony with no long term bases, no major trading hubs, filled with hostile 'natives' etc, is the least of out problems,' So not 'tired' they just felt it was a waste of resources, they could just walk away from.

russia in Ukraine was a mistake for russia, geopolitically they can not afford to just walk away, politically they can not afford losing the war, economically they can not afford the war to continue.... or end, russia has no good options other than bluffing the previously stated items are not true. Ukraine however is fighting for it survival, even if every single piece of aid stopped tomorrow, the resistance will continue, it will just get massively more bloody.

RogueAOV

It is now a war of attrition. Each side is trying to wear down the other. The Russians are convinced that they can throw enough lives at the Ukrainians that they will eventually collapse. The Ukrainians are fighting for their existence and realize that, like the Soviet misadventure in Afghanistan, they just need to hold out long enough for the Russian state to economically implode.

PenTestHer

YoghurtDefiant666

There's only two ways this war ends: 


Ukraine caves in to trump-putin's demands and gifts putin a quarter of their country to temporarily appease putin and give russia time to restock and rearm. 


Or putin dies and in the ensuring chaos from the power vacuum Russia withdraws. 

Silly-Power

Rwanda has INVADED eastern DRC using the M23 as cover they use drones and modern military equipment against government forces and local civilian militias (wazalendos).They have captured the cities of Goma, Bukavu and set up local administrations and police. M23 have recruited local politicians to their cause and has joined a fake alliance of opponents of the central government. Their goal is to annex both Kivu provinces.

flatpapers

As horrible as the Taliban regime is, Afghanistan is not in a state of conflict right now. 

Burma has been in a state of civil war for pretty much its entire existence.

Ulfricosaure

If Haiti is marked on this map why not [Mexico](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_drug_war) where 13,000 people „went missing“ since 2007 [(BBC)](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4rnr720yo) or South Africa, considering „South Africa has notably high rates of violent crime[8] and has a reputation for consistently having one of the highest murder rates in the world.“ [(Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_South_Africa)?

Furthermore what about [Ethiopian civil conflict](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_civil_conflict_(2018%E2%80%93present)) that „caused substantial human rights violations, war crimes, and extrajudicial killings.“

petterri

What is the conflict in Afghanistan? Oppression of women is not a conflict.

sairam_sriram

Yemen has been in the news plenty. I don't think most people really care beyond its effects on shipping and Israel, but it gets attention.

a-Snake-in-the-Grass

I feel like Yemen has had low level background coverage for a while. I think most people don’t understand the players involved.

For Afghanistan, it feels like the (western) world has kind of given up on it. It was the focus of news reporting for basically two decades (along with Iraq). When the USA pulled out and the government collapsed immediately. And now it’s just a continuously shitty situation. What is the news going to say that’s new other than things are just getting shittier. People aren’t interested in being involved anymore.

Also, just a general point. I don’t like the implication that it is a moral failing that we are not up to date with every conflict in the world. The news is typically covering things that are relevant for their audience. For Europeans and NATO, the Ukrainian conflict is relevant. For the USA and Europe and the Middle East, the Gaza conflict is relevant because it is consuming their resources and effecting their relationships with other nations.

man-vs-spider

Indonesia has the potential to be on this map in the upcoming week(s). Bullets had been fired as of yesterday night against the protesters.

maomao-chan

There are some people that get mad when someone talks about Ukraine but not Palestine (but they‘re also mad when people did not spend years researching that conflict) but don‘t give a single thought to any other war on earth. Typical social media virtue signaling.

ActuatorForeign7465

Another situation that gets overlooked that this map doesn’t show: 

Kurdistan: *CURRENTLY* Kurdish people outside of Turkiye get killed by Turkish militia (example Kurds in Rojava/Northern Syria) Turkiye putting their nose in other countries just so they can attack/kill the Kurds.

Source: [Live ua map (great to see all the troubles around the world live)](https://kurds.liveuamap.com)

Mo_Yeagah

What happend with the India/Pakistan conflict?

And are these just the top 7? There are still a lot of others missing

Veritas_Vanitatum

Isn't Libya also in the middle of a renewed civil conflict? I heard factions of the "unity" government were clashing again

Active-Walk-6402

[deleted]

A conflict in economic hub Europe involving nuclear power Russia affects the whole world.
A conflict in the chunk of land called "holy", somehow does too.
Sad, but other conflicts are not "interesting" to the the rest of the world. Massacre each other until you understand you could coexist. Just as Europe had been doing until recently.

jalanajak

DRC and Rwanda signed a peace accord a couple of months back.

SaigonDisko

We care about Ukraine because it’s in Europe and about Gaza because Jews.

The Sudan conflict (not even sure civil war makes sense as a term here) is horrifying but it gets 0 engagement

limitbreakse

Lose Lose for the USA. If we get involved we are imperialists who are trying to police the world. If we don't get involved we "don't care because there's no oil"...there's literally nothing we can do that wouldn't be met with criticism.

Relative-Weekend-941

Wooden_Luck1890

Western media don't cover Sahel as we have been thrown out of the region and replaced by Russian PMCs. No mention of Ukrainian mercenaries fighting them with drones in the region joining dubious groups though not ISIS yet and possibly now in Congo as drone attacks have started there by the Rwandan side

Acceptable-Friend-42

IamtheWalrus-gjoob

And the conflict in Ethiopia is completely forgotten about.

Pale_Marionberry_570

You forgot Mexico, Honduras, Somalia, North Korea, Ecuador, and Colombia

STEVEMOBSLAYER

We have to focus our eyes on other conflicts, starting here. Do NOT stop

You can put out only so much fire ot at the same time. 

Why Ukraine demands attention? 

Because Russia and China want to go back to good old order of massive territorial wars and bonafide colonial empires when they and USA sit at the table and divide the territories and decide the fate of billions. Anyone not at the table is on the menu, sooner or later. You don't decide how much you want and have - they'll decide what you should and should not have.

sercommander

dumytntgaryNholob

Syria genocide isn't on here? 

Yemen has had a ceasefire since 2022 that was holding.

There still have been skirmishes but the fighting has largely stopped

VersionMinute6721

Is Sudan really overlooked tho'?

It was pretty much all over the news and still is, especially due logistic complications it brought.

Personally, I'd put in Ethiopia, rather as "overlooked conflict".

nani7598

Who cares, they have nothing we need or want. /s

Dorrono

Because none involves a major western ally as native like ukraine and israel(not native but usa considers it).

It's the truth &amp; a fact. The west and its media are selectively biased about those conflicts.

Easy-Past2953

If by 'the world' you mean 'corporate media' then I agree with this post 100%

Literally zero coverage in the UK of most of these conflicts outside some minor and infrequent bits in the global affairs sections of say the graun and sometimes even the times or buried in a regional bit of the BBC news website

Hyper_Hal

Now do a map of the number of protests, encamptment in universities, flotilas, tourists attacks abroad, tourists denied services, workplace shutdowns, parades halting, international condemnations, embargos and calls for embargos, UN security council resolutions, UN condemnations, demands for humanitarian aid, for each of those peoples starving, dying and babies blown up for no good reason.

I'll wait.

The_BooKeeper

Uncivilized countries don’t interest me to be honest 🤷🏿 They have nothing to contribute to the world.

Old_Meal_3613

Spomalia , Central African Republic , Nigeria , Cameroon , Libya , Syria , Ethiopia , South Sudan , Pakistan , Iran , Iraq , - you forgot all of these and Afghanistan war is US propaganda , there is no war , at most there are some terrorist attacks by ISIS

ShibeMate

These ones I knew about I thought they’d be more given my bleak outlook on humanity

lucasbuzek

Sudan, Yemen and Haiti, are conflicts that at least Americans are very well aware of.

WorkingItOutSomeday

the fact haiti is just no mans land rn and nobody cares says so much tbh

Alexx-07

Thanks god that armnia-azerbaijan is not overlooked anymore i guess? lol

Lipa_neo

In these it is a bit more difficult to label sides as bad or good. And redditors do not like difficult.

Alek_Eleutherios

insurgentbroski

Correct me if im wrong (which is very possible, ive been trying to learn more on the subject) but arent DRC and Sudan conflicts tied back to / results of the Rwandan Genocide?

Numerous-Confusion-9

Well, I will definitely not visit any of those places then.

dulcedeteta

Yeah we should all pick sides and argue over these too 

New-Leader-7891

ZealousidealAct7724

Sudan is going through the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.

GustavoistSoldier

How about Mexico and the more then 100,000 people killed in the narcotics trade

Glittering_Link_6650

Ok-Book849

It isn't really a "conflict" in Afghanistan though. And Haiti has a massive criminal problem, but so does Colombia and a lot of other African and Latin American countries.

Call_Me_Rawah

Afghanistan should not be listed as a conflict. Women losing rights is not a military conflict

Hlvtica

not the world ignores.. the mainstream media ignores.

keepsmiling1977

the yemen civil war is mostly on hold since a ceasefire in 2022 iirc, and afghanistan is not in a state of conflict either

bodycornflower

8minejad

titanicboi1

Israel is currently bombing Lebanon and Syria and intermittently bombing Iran as well

ZhenXiaoMing

So... where's the conflict in Afghanistan, exactly?

Abject-Ticket-6260

afghanistan isnt in a conflict anymore, the taliban won.

KaesiumXP

People don't really care about far away conflicts - they're just ideologically obsessed and want to be mad at something.

flioink

StorageBrilliant2227

Ok so, a couple things:

When people say “the world” in posts like this, they almost certainly just mean North America and Europe. For some reason, if these two continents don’t care about an issue, that somehow equates to the whole world not caring about the same issue.

Secondly, Gaza and Ukraine get more coverage than these because, to Europeans and Americans, they aren’t just random disconnected conflicts they have nothing to do with, and these very much are. I think it’s wild that global south people have the audacity to get mad at Europeans for caring more about a war on their continent than they do about some random conflict in Africa, there’s a clear distinction there that would prompt Europeans to care more about the former. And as for Gaza, most westerners at this point are extremely tired and furious that their governments continue to give unfiltered support to a regime committing a live-streamed holocaust, ergo people care about it more. I think to equate those two things to random conflicts in Africa and Southeast Asia that are truly disconnected from westerners is frankly insane and purposefully obtuse if you truly can’t see any distinction.

Few_Ad6426

In 2022 russia had taken 18% of ukraine. 3 years later they have taken 19%

throughthehills2

folks, there exists a website [https://liveuamap.com/](https://liveuamap.com/) .There was one for Syria\* and not long into Ukraine war a live UA map was set up. it shows news and revelations, warning etc. You can also go back in time.

FireMammoth

Why is no one asking the obvious question here: who tf is Zelensky huggin’?

FrostnJack

I think last time Zelenskyy met Trump, He realized that Trump is more stupid than he even seems, and that it is not just an act

SimplyLaggy

That’s funny. It’s almost like it makes a road between the strategically indispensable warm water port city of Sebastopol and Russia! 🤔

Astroglaid92

The "joke" is that in 2022, at the beginning of the war, the Russians had even taken over more of Ukraine's territory but were then pushed back and haven't managed to take it back in 3 years... at their current rate of advance the Russians would need years and probably another million dead Russians just to achieve their minimum goals, so much for the Russians supposedly being so superior, they are weak and only the hesitant West has ensured that Ukraine is not yet free. 😮‍💨

Select_Ladder_9844

Russia has shown that they're a weak military power. Without their nukes, their military is literal trash. Only being able to take that much in the years shows the Ukrainians self determination. Praying for Putin to kick the bucket. 

Lunaristics

Stick on gold moulding trim kindly supplied by [Walmart](https://www.walmart.com/c/kp/gold-molding-trim).

andythetwig

I remember shortly after the invasion began, there were reports of a large convoy of Russian tanks headed to Kiev from Belarus. I thought, for sure, this was to topple the Ukrainian government once and for all.

I was wrong for doubting the resolve of the Ukrainian people.

AntiPantsCampaign

And all that with well over a million casualties from the Russia’s side. Although the numbers are being hidden in Russia itself. Putin is just a war mongering douchebag.

MisterLeMarquis

This was at the White House meeting and we all know Trump is too stupid to understand stuff so needs graphics and MAPS..we can see the Italian PM hugging Zelenskky in the forefront but its the map at the back we need to focus on.

warcomet

He’s hugging Giorgia Meloni. She’s PM of Italy.

GeddysPal

Any peace will be demonstratively false. it is a scheme to get peacetime voting for Ukraine in a bid to oust Zelensky. So another person can fold the nation up like a present to Putin, getting lambasted by the people while they get riches from Putin. After that there will be peace until Putin has rearmed, and then he sweeps the baltic states.

Nogarda

Didn’t Putin say Kyiv would fall in days? Nope. Wrong. You cannot defeat the resolve and will of the Ukrainians. We’ve got your backs

Five-Oh-Vicryl

It will never be enough until Putin has it all

Ukleon

I really hope Ukraine gets all their land back and Russia just fucks off.

EndStorm

But look at all the land Ukraine has defended and people it has protected. Slava Ukraine! 

There is a famous quote from Winston Churchill - "when you are going through hell - keep going". So just keep going - the world is behind you!

starsky1984

This is actually kind of interesting. Based on all the postings on Reddit, you would have thought Ukraine was winning the war.

jerwong

How the F is this a real picture? The gold shit looks so ridiculous it's like bolted on from the dollar store or something it's so bad. The tackiest cheese ball wouldn't think this looks good.

zeezero

Russia launched its largest drone strike on Ukraine since the conflict began, causing significant damage and casualties, as international calls for stronger sanctions against Russia intensify.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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