I don’t think that being aware of the history of the conflict had anything to do with being surprised or not by the invasion. I have family in both Russia and Ukraine and nobody expected it.
Even the Russian soldiers who found themselves being sent into Ukraine were surprised.
Re:NeRF: An eventual successor for deepfakes?
by RobertRoberts on Tuesday June 28, 2022 @03:52PM
(#31912202)
But did they know there was war in Ukraine for years? I suspect this is common knowledge in Europe, but it's extremely rare knowledge here.
But I had watched documentaries about Ukraine years ago, and since most people watch only Fox news, CNN, MSNBC, etc... they knew nothing at all.
So when Russia invaded most people were shocked, where I, and those few others that were information, were not as suprised.