Kiev’s Security Chief Is Freaking Out That A Growing Number Of Ukrainians Want Peace

by Andrew Korybko

It’s been very difficult for observers to get accurate information out of Ukraine ever since Zelensky exploited Russia’s special operation over the past year to impose a full-blown dictatorship by banning independent media and opposition parties. Prior to head of the National Security and Defense Council Aleksey Danilov freaking out about this trend on TV and thus inadvertently confirming that it veritably exists, all such claims were dismissed by the West as so-called “Russian propaganda”, but now there’s no denying it any longer after what he just revealed.
 
Head of the National Security and Defense Council Aleksey Danilov claimed that the growing number of his compatriots that want peace with Russia supposedly constitutes a dangerous trend. In his own words uttered during his latest appearance on the TV show “Greater Lvov Speaks”, “One should] bear in mind that those [people advocating talks with Russia] are growing in numbers. It is a very dangerous tendency when even people in western Ukraine are starting to talk about such things”
 
It’s been very difficult for observers to get accurate information out of Ukraine ever since Zelensky exploited Russia’s special operation over the past year to impose a full-blown dictatorship by banning independent media and opposition parties. Prior to Danilov freaking out about this trend and thus inadvertently confirming that it veritably exists, all such claims were dismissed by the West as so-called “Russian propaganda”, but now there’s no denying it any longer after what he just revealed.
 
His fascist regime’s secret police obviously have their finger on the population’s pulse, hence why he became aware that a growing number of people want peace with Russia, including those that reside in Ukraine’s traditionally hyper-nationalist western regions like Lvov. The SBU, which also runs the troll network known as “NAFO” that wages information warfare aimed at manipulating Western perceptions about this proxy war in Kiev’s favor, brutally suppresses even the mildest expressions of dissent.
 
It should therefore be taken for granted that the secret police’s assessment about the growing number of people that want peace with Russia is derived from the information fed to them by their informants as well as what they themselves surmised upon spying on their own people’s digital communications. The SBU can’t slaughter everyone, nor do they want to since it’s in their regime’s interests to force dissidents into fighting on the front line against Russia as cannon fodder.
 
The fact that this trend towards peace still remains in effect despite the secret police’s efforts to brutally suppress it proves that it’s a powerful force reverberating throughout Ukrainian society, one which was clearly shaped by recent developments. In particular, Russia’s gradual on-the-ground gains around Artyomovsk/“Bakhmut” and Zelensky’s candid admission last month that he’ll abandon that geostrategic city in the worst-case scenario likely played a major role in this.
 
He later walked back the aforementioned remark in an exclusive interview with CNN where he claimed that Russia might roll through the rest of Donbass if it successfully captures that city, but the damage was already done. Moreover, in spite of the regime’s denials, their side’s losses are likely astronomical by this point and many Ukrainians probably already know someone who died in this conflict. That also must have certainly played a major role in shaping popular perceptions in the direction of peace.

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