For $5 a month, become a Useful Idiot! Get extended interviews, Thursday Throwdowns, and a chance to have your comment read on the show in the Absurd Arena at http://usefulidiots.substack.com Click here for the full interview with Luhansk Deputy Foreign Minister Anna Soroka: https://open.substack.com/pub/usefulidiots/p/how-do-pro-russian-ukrainians-see?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web War in Ukraine did not start with Russia’s February 2022 invasion. Ukraine has been at civil war since 2014, when the US backed a coup to overthrow President Viktor Yanukovych. When the new post-coup government cracked down on ethnic-Russian Ukrainians and their Russian culture, Ukrainians in the eastern Donbas region rose up in rebellion, leading to the creation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Anna Soroka, joining the Useful Idiots from Ukraine, is the former Deputy Foreign Minister of the Luhansk People's Republic. She joins Useful Idiots to share what it’s like being on the other side of a civil war that has now escalated into a full-blown proxy war with Russia. Sometimes discussions about war can become abstract, but it’s important to go “behind enemy lines” and hear from real people on the other side. It’s a perspective that you don’t get to hear at all in the NATO states. Unless you follow shows like Useful Idiots. Plus, watch our Thursday Throwdown where Biden completes his transformation into Trump as he kills Bernie's bid to stop the Saudi war on Yemen. It’s all this, and more, on this week’s episode of Useful Idiots. Check it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices