Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 1/7
yesterday the Ukrainian delegates I was escorting around shared an experience they’d had with some of their American hosts that they found very upsetting.

it concerned the reason given for the war.
05:48 PM - Feb 07, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 2/7
now I hope everyone who reads this is crystal clear on the fact that this was a war started unilaterally by Russia in 2014 with the invasion of Crimea, which is a region of Ukraine.
05:48 PM - Feb 07, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 3/7
after successfully “annexing” Crimea — a weirdly bloodless word that people use for a takeover that somehow obscures the issue of legality — Russia began to attack the eastern areas of Ukraine.

in 2022 the Russian invasion was massive and multi-pronged.
05:48 PM - Feb 07, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 4/7
the West talks as if the war started then, but no, it had been going on for 8 years by that point.

the American hosts they talked to had a different idea, however — that it started because of language.
05:48 PM - Feb 07, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 5/7
they referred to the fact that in the eastern part of Ukraine, people who spoke Russian were supposedly barred from doing so, and that when they resisted the Ukrainian language, Ukraine declared war.

the Ukrainian delegates were deeply unsettled and upset by this disinformation.
05:48 PM - Feb 07, 2024 (Edited)
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 6/7
at this point, I take it as a matter of course that disinformation is everywhere, but even I was surprised to find that people involved with my organization, volunteering to support our sister city relationship with Ukraine, were susceptible to this. (Fox News, that you?)
05:48 PM - Feb 07, 2024
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Hester Prynnecess, beat reporter
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thread 7/7
in any case, please know that our Ukrainian guests are terrified by the idea of losing American support. their media is saturated with stories about the threat of Trump’s return to power. is it inevitable, they asked me? because in their eyes, if he wins, they face the threat of extermination.
05:48 PM - Feb 07, 2024
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