From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi. This is the Daily.

Nearly two months into the war in Ukraine, many Russians have gone from shock and denial

to support for their troops and anger at the West.

Today, my colleague Anton Trinovsky, on what's behind that shifting view and what it means

for those who go against it. It's Tuesday, April 19.

So Anton, we've talked before on the show about Russian views of the war and at the start,

you know, there were some protests around the country, but fundamentally, most Russians

didn't really believe that a full-fledged war in Ukraine was happening.

So, catch us up on what's been happening inside Russia since then.

So, you're right. Initially, it wasn't even made clear in the state media that what was going on was a full-fledged invasion.

Putin, when he announced this on the morning of February, the 24th, described it as a special military operation

to protect people in that eastern Donbass region of Ukraine.

And that's how the TV news presented it. You know, you didn't really hear anything about the fact that Kiev was being hit by airstrikes

and that the suburbs of Kiev were being attacked by Russian troops.

So, for a big part of the population in those early weeks of the war, it wasn't even clear that their country had mounted a full-fledged invasion of their neighbor.

Right.

There were other Russians who did see what was going on.

And there were protests around the country in dozens of cities.

In total, more than 15,000 people were arrested.

And then, on March 4th, Putin signs a law that puts in place really extraordinary penalties for countering the official Kremlin line on the war in Ukraine in basically any way.

So, of course, Russia has been limiting free speech for a long time, but this was really taking it to another level.

According to that law, someone publishing something described as fake news about the war in Ukraine can be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

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