Two lonely protesters against the growing autocracy and forced mobilization are being stopped by the police. It is not Russia, it is Kyiv. In Ukraine there are plenty of attempts at protests that either get stopped right away or receive zero coverage at all. For example, women who have... lost husbands, sons, or relatives regularly try to hold rallies demanding that more be done to search for the missing. Those barely register. In Ukraine — especially in Kyiv — the police stop any solitary protests or performances that carry anti-war slogans or calls for immediate peace. Martial law completely bans public street actions, and those kinds of messages are treated by the police as attempts to destabilize the country in the "enemy’s interest." Here’s one of the latest examples. In Kyiv, two young men held a solitary picket against the forced conscription. Their signs read: “The TCC is still kidnapping people” and “War is no excuse to build a dictatorship.” The only coverage came through social media. The police shut the picket down. A source reported: “The picket started at 6:30 p.m. Two people from the town of Korostyshiv in Zhytomyr region took part — one 25, the other 26. They were detained, a protocol was drawn up for violating the rules on holding rallies, and then they were released.” Also, no one covers multiple people speaking out against the war. Not a single Western media outlet has written about this growing wave of attempts — the online critisim and protests against the war and against the excesses of the conscription officers that seize people right off the streets. Yet every mainstream outlet covers the protests against Fedorov’s dismissal — a name most Ukrainians had never even heard of before the scandal.show more

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