UK broadcaster SkyNews on Friday published a report saying that many citizens of the Lisichansk city in the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) express support for Russia's special military operation in Ukraine.
Alex Crawford, the broadcaster's correspondent in the LPR, reported that there are many Russian sympathizers in the city, blaming the Ukrainian authorities and President Volodymyr Zelensky for what is happening in Ukraine.
"Ukrainians. It's them who started this. Nobody else. Russia wants to help Ukraine," a citizen told the correspondent when asked who was to blame.
The correspondent's video, published by the broadcaster, also showed some people walking down the city streets while singing patriotic songs in Russian. When approached by a correspondent, one woman asked where the filming crew was from.
"Britain? Ah, so you're not writing the truth. You are not writing the truth," the woman responded after the correspondent said that she was from the United Kingdom.
Nevertheless, some people are not taking sides and have "strong differing views" on the situation, hoping for the hostilities to end soon, according to the report.
"Who knows if it's Zelensky. Russia is saying its own thing. Zelensky is saying his own thing. And we can't understand. We haven't had our pensions for five months now… Zelensky isn't paying us… Russia's not paying us," another citizen told the correspondent when asked who was to blame for the Ukraine crisis.
Almost the entire territory of the LPR has been liberated by the Russian military, except for the Lisichansk city. Earlier, the LPR people's militia said that it took full control over the Lisichansk oil refinery, while the Ukrainian military had been ordered to withdraw from the city, according to LPR lt. col. Andrei Marochko.
