Imagine expecting some poor old lady hiding in a basement with the recently orphaned children of the village to give you a straight answer about their political allegiance under such duress. That kind of statement could easily be a death sentence when the fighting is over and revanchism begins in earnest.

I understand the interest in trying to document the way the locals are coping with the war, and what they think the future might bring, but there's something which feels off about putting such defenseless people on the spot about something like this. If they volunteer and say something optimistic or pessimistic about the invasion, that's one thing, but it's another when they are just trying to survive and find a way to take care of their families as lives and infrastructure are being destroyed around them. The reporters will come and go with the front, but these people will be left behind to deal with the aftermath.

Yeah, looks like he has been in Donetsk since 2014, only leaving really to go cover the Armenian-Azerbajian conflict last year, though interestingly he was mostly interviewing on the Armenian side, it looks like.