Patrick Lancaster has been reporting on the ground for years and his work is important documentation about what has been happening since 2014, particularly in the Donbass region. He used to post on Steem a few years back, I believe.

Far too often we're bombarded by media telling one simplified narrative, a black/white good versus evil dichotomy that is far from reality. I'm not claiming to know more about what's going on in Ukraine than the next person, but I sure as hell know it's not the narrative that floods our newsfeeds. Reality is all sorts of grey.

Most people just read the headlines and go with the flow. I think your article is a fair assessment of what's happening and an example of reporting that is kept out of mainstream press. In the current state, media regarding the situation in Ukraine is emotionally hyper-charged and pointing out inconvenient truths is met not with critical thinking and debate but with labeling those who question the narrative as: Putin apologists, Russian agents and anti-Ukrainian.

I think I saw on Twitter some users were unceremoniously given titles/tags- "Russian Media" in their profiles. Ridiculous stuff. I think it was George Galloway, lol.
You mentioned John Pilger, also someone I highly respect in the field of journalism, so I'll take a look at Jacque Baud's reporting on your recommendation. You also reminded me of Chris Hedges being recently deleted from Youtube, because his show was on RT. It's utter nonsense to deplatform bonafide journalists with decades of experience in actual war zones who might have some insights worth listening to. Similar situation with Scott Ritter, who got suspended for questioning the narrative. Like Pilger, Hedges is anti-war and lost his job at the NYTimes because of his opposition to the invasion of Iraq. he recently wrote a good piece title "Worthy and Unworthy Victims" which I would recommend anyone to read.

From a propaganda perspective, there's unbelievable hypocrisy happening, it's quite shocking. Why does the west not apply the same standards for the illegal bombing and destruction of Libya by NATO forces? Why do we completely ignore the war in Yemen? Why is the US able to invade Iraq on false pretences without consequence? The list goes on and on.

Sadly, as you point it will be the people of Ukraine will continue to suffer as this proxy war doesn't seem to have a way of ending soon unless Zelensky does a 180 and decides to try to negotiate a deal with Russia.