I am from Central Europe, you should know what the proper name is

.
My father was born in 1937 and even remembers WWI as a young boy. He used to say the Germans treated them kids better than the Russians, when theyived through their village.
EE or CE, whatever is easier for people. In our situation the Germans were much worse than the Russians.
I always had and still do have some sympathy for the Russians. If you believe this. I don't relish any war imagery from this conflict.
My father was punished for not being a member of the CP by not being allowed to attend university.
Similar things happened in my family too and some worse things. Unncessary and cruel things which would not have occurred if not for WW2 and Soviet occupation.
My brother remembers 1968 and I was 14 when the Velvet Revolution happened. I was there with my father, "ringing" the keys to symbolize its time for the communists to go.
I had a relative whose face was broken by riot cops and wasn't even part of a protest. Just for fun, just in case.
Confiscation of land. My relatives were also persecuted because some of them were enterprising. Because of their given bourgeois / social class, my relatives had trouble attending university. Restrictions were eased however to some degree for operational reasons or we had to use workarounds. I could say a lot.
To be honest, I had the best childhood ever. Never had to worry about crime, food or my parents not having a job. It was a wonderful childhood, but that does not mean communism was great. It was much better in 1980s VS the 50s, but it was communism nonetheless.
True, the 50s were not like the 80s.
Contrary to what you may believe (and call me), I am anti-Russian, anti-communism and anti this war. That being said, I detest people who are so stuck in their ways, never willing to consider anything outside of the scope of their convictions; to such an extent that they are prepared to denigrate others for proposing an alternative.
I don't expect anyone to be anti-Russian as qua being inherently anti-Russian. I also don't consider this being about communism per se although obviously occupation by a democratic / free market aggressor would be better than one which also imposed this toxic way of life which was communism. There was a difference between occupations by central powers and occupation by the Russians.
So I find this strange. You don't come across as any of these and you seem to carry too much water for Russia. I can claim to be from India and like curry but if I don't regularly eat curries or speak any of the languages...
I don't know if you're trying to bring out a more nuanced view? Because that's not the way to bring out nuance. Yes Ukraine is not perfect, the West is not perfect, nobody is perfect but when you point out minor flaws on the one side and contrast them to what the other side does it doesn't bring out an accurate picture.
I don't think most people here are ignorant. Everyone recognises propaganda from both sides. But it's clear cut who the aggressor is. It's clear cut that such behaviour cannot be tolerated n modern day Europe (or elsewhere).
I have watched people like that for the past two years (many of the same character here), behaving in exactly the same way and it wasn't pretty. Well, those people turned out not to be as right as they thought they were.
What are your concerns about an independent Ukraine?
Why do you deny Ukraine an opportunity to have a Velvet Revolution of their own?
In those times there were people who would claim that people who opposed the Soviets and their puppet governments were just stirred up by America. Were you also just used as a pawn by Americans?
The French and West Germans to an extent considered Soviet puppet crackdowns to be internal policy of the Soviet puppet states.
You do understand that if Ukraine joined the Russians, chances are we'd be fighting the Russians now?
Or pretty soon?
Ukraine is essentially fighting for all of us. That's important to remember. Every Russian tank they destroy or plane they shoot down, every Russian setback, every Russian business which goes bust because of sanctions, is less opportunity for Russia to lay down the gauntlet militarily against NATO members. And given how recklessly they went into this war, there is a chance they would have gone against NATO members. Russia would ultimately have been defeated but I sure as heck wouldn't want people in CE/EE to die to teach them that lesson. It's a pity Ukrainains have to die but that's ALL Russia's fault. They chose to attack.