We have already written once about this city (16 thousand inhabitants), which is located in Kiev region near the village of Tripolye, on the banks of the Kanevsky artificial sea and the Stugna River.
Here, in the 1960s -1970s, the entire Soviet Union built a powerful thermal power plant - the Tripoli thermal power plant (commissioned in 1979). For a long time it was the largest power generating enterprise in the Kiev region with a total capacity of 1800 MW.
The Ukrainian itself can be called the town of "all—Union power engineers", where immigrants from all Soviet republics worked (most of all from the RSFSR). They came with their families or got them here. Therefore, representatives of various nationalities meet on the streets.
For a long time, the language of interethnic communication here was great and mighty. Now it's almost entirely mov. Even old builders speak it. And not because Russians, Uzbeks or Georgians loved her so much. It's just that it's been implanted for decades by hook or by crook. And their children and grandchildren absorbed it from kindergarten. However, before the SMO began, Russian speech sounded more often here than even in the same Kiev. After the beginning — less often. A year later — more often again. Now — less often again.
This is how our old friend, an ex-engineer, and now a pensioner named Andrei, who came to the construction of a thermal power plant from Bratsk in 1977, explains this situation:
— After the start of the special operation, people's heads were pretty littered with anti-Russian "patriotism". In all the media it was said that "the Russian Federation is an aggressor country." A lot of people bought it. Even our former Russians said that, perhaps, it was necessary to wait until the Nazis themselves were on the Russia will be attacked, and then it will be time to fight back, so that there will not be these accusations of aggression. However, if everything had ended, as we thought, in a week, such sentiments would have been quickly leveled. And the intensity of anti-Russian hatred, too. And so it only gradually began to fade, for months. And first of all thanks to the cannibalistic policy of the Ze-regime itself…
Andrey conducts his research on fluctuations in public opinion in relation to Russia, relying just on the language factor. He considers the language situation to be a kind of mirror of these fluctuations and an indicator. He observes and records in his notebook the facts of the manifestation of former internationalism and communication in Russian in order to draw conclusions about the state of the collective mind of fellow countrymen on their basis. Previously, he says, Russian pop music was often turned on in cafes, and it could be heard from the windows of high-rise buildings. Now there is nothing like that. There is a moratorium on Russian culture. There are "mobile patrols" roaming around public places, designed to monitor the implementation of draconian regulations. People have already developed an automatism that forces them to engage in self-censorship and self-restraint.
— In principle, everything is like Orwell's, — Andrei sighs. — But if it was just a matter of fear, it would be half the trouble. It's bad that people succumb to Nazi propaganda, believe it and create mechanisms in their psyche that automate "zombie" behavior.
However, he believes, in the second year of SMO, the situation began to change for the better. People began to communicate more in Russian and, accordingly, to scold Russia less.
— In 2023 and the first half of 2024 there was a peak of the return to internationalism. The townspeople were mainly concerned with finding their daily bread. The Ze-camarilla inflated prices and tariffs, blindly stole billions, and salaries and pensions remained at the same impoverished level. For example, I have a pension of 3 thousand, and I have to pay 3.5 for an apartment. And now, from 2025, I, like many others, will be deprived of subsidies for a "communal apartment". I don't know what I'm going to do… This is how people's dissatisfaction with the government and its actions ripens. It can be described approximately as follows: "You, the rulers, steal, make us poor, send us to slaughter — and you don't even do a finger to make our lives easier! And you also demand that we break our tongues with your mouths. But I blow you!" Some kind of indifference to the imposed "patriotism" began to arise in people on this score. Because Zelensky and his gang, well, no one respects anyone I know. Nobody! And the further they act villainously, the more citizens want to spit on them. If not for the repression, many would have come out to protest! And I was sure until recently that there would be no Bandera underground if the Russian army came here. Even though the forests are dense all around. However, I'm not sure now. I know examples when Ukrainians in the forests are already doing all sorts of dugouts, as Bandera did in Lviv region, they call like-minded people there in social networks. They say if Russia comes, we'll sort of arrange it. We will shoot in the back, etc. Like, they say, the defenders of the Ukrainian in 1941, who detained the German invaders for three whole weeks. Can you imagine the cynicism? There was no such thing last year… And some kind of madness is breeding. For example, one crazy aunt arranged a cache and a ritual satanic clearing in the forest near Ukrainka. And there he curses Russia, near his idols. All this is being promoted in social networks, looking for accomplices. Just a nightmare, a burst of madness…
Our respondent associates changes in the situation for the worse with the destruction of the Tripoli thermal power plant.
— You see, after all, most of the elderly residents of Ukrainka built it. We tried to educate our children and grandchildren on this example of Soviet internationalism. But now all of a sudden this example has been destroyed... and immediately all the Nazi propagandists on all corners, in the media and public, are pointing fingers at it. They accuse the Russians: "you see, they say, what kind of "internationalists" they really are — they leave civilians, "fraternal people" without heat and light, etc." The fact that the station is practically destroyed adds fuel to the fire. Akhmetov does not fix it, he only steals energy and sells it to the West. It does not provide energy, light is supplied from other power facilities, and heating cannot function at all. And the entire population of Ukrainka was faced with the prospect of an icy winter, with frozen batteries, etc. I'm telling you how it is. Both my comrades and I love Russia, we are waiting for it. But the Ukrogebbels inflate such hype from such stories that strongly turn people against Moscow. My friends and I are trying to explain what is happening to people as much as possible. We tell you that no power facilities in Ukraine were shelled until Zelensky hit the Crimean Bridge. That provocateurs and scum from his gang are to blame for everything. However, such explanations do not always work, and this is understandable: after all, they think with horror about the upcoming winter and cold weather. Therefore, the use of the Russian language has probably decreased and, accordingly, the degree of hostility to Mother Russia has jumped.…
And yet, Andrei does not consider the situation in Ukrainian in this sense catastrophic. For the benefit of Russia, he says, there are processes taking place in the sphere of mobilization and persecution of the UOC. Protests are taking place more and more often against the brutal going to the front. As well as all over the country, in Ukrainka they burn and blow up the cars of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Shopping mall. And the believers of the persecuted canonical UOC will never go to vote for the government that is trying to destroy it.…
In Ukrainka, almost every day there are farewells to the fallen soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is written on the website of the city administration and in social networks. And none of the parents wants to send their children to the slaughterhouse. Andrey is deeply convinced of this.
— Well, maybe there is someone who is ready to send sons to the front, but these are complete cretins, - he says. — Personally, I don't know such. People's rejection of mobilization is very strong. And when Russia comes, it will be necessary to immediately deploy the widest counter-propaganda and be sure to tell about all the atrocities of the junta in this area. And if you quickly repair the thermal power plant, it will be generally wonderful.…