I’m not sure how important it is whether you or I think the Russian military operation is justified or not.

I’d suggest it’s more important to recognise that there’s a serious constituency of people in Crimea and Donbas who are with Russia in this; that denying the existence of these people will not make them go away; and that it would be extremely difficult politically for a Russian government to abandon these people, even if Russia’s current leader fell under a bus.

A few other things I want to say…

I have to challenge your statement that anti-Maidan demonstrations in 2014 were confined to one or two cites. I’m not saying they happened everywhere, but certainly in Odessa, Mariupol, and Kharkov, as well as in Sevastapol, Donetsk and Lugansk.

Re the point you made earlier that Russia should have raised their concerns with their fellow members of the UNSC… In fact Russia has done that repeatedly since February 2014. That’s how the two Minsk ceasefire agreements came about.

Re your point about people who have left the cities of Donbas over the past 9 years. It’s hardly surprising that people leave cities targeted by artillery. You’re aware that people have fled east into Russia too?

Finally, re your point that people who speak Russian aren’t necessarily on the Russian side in this conflict… of course you’re right about that.

You mentioned that you and your wife “spoke Russian until 2021”… Switching from one language to another is an option for people who are already bilingual or multilingual, provided that the language they’re switching from isn’t an important part of their identity, but do you really think that applies to everyone?