Anonymous Telegram channels promote the thesis that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is the return of territories, not the liberation of people.

For example, the Ukrainian military scares residents with death who do not meet them with flags and pancakes. Moreover, they also do not let people go into the territory occupied by Russia, shooting cars on the road.

Propagandists began to actively reproduce these thoughts after the SSU discovered a convoy of cars shelled by the Russians in the so-called "gray zone" in the Kharkiv region, where 20 people died, including 10 children, as well as after a convoy of cars was shot by Russian missiles in Zaporizhzhia, where were mostly locals who transported humanitarian aid to their relatives in the occupied territory.

People with different views remained alive in the liberated Ukrainian military towns and villages: some were waiting for the Ukrainian army, and others wanted to return to the USSR and spoke favorably of the Russian occupiers. However, no one from the military or SSU persecuted them, moreover, no one threatened them with death for their views. For example, in liberated Izyum, some Ukrainians with pro-Russian views freely gave interviews to Ukrainian journalists, and no one threatened them with violence or harm.