Use of the word "scepticism" has been changing recently. Let's see what the Oxford English Dictionary has to say, first, just for a little clarity. .
1. The doctrine of the Sceptics; the opinion that real knowledge of any kind is unattainable. (this is surely not the sense here)
2. Sceptical attitude in relation to some particular branch of science;
doubt or incredulity as to the truth of some assertion or supposed fact. Also, disposition to doubt or incredulity in general; mistrustfulness; sceptical temper. (the bold text seems to be the sense meant here)
3. Doubt or unbelief with regard to the Christian religion. (probably not the sense intended here)
Let's start with the bold text from sense 2:
doubt or incredulity as to the truth of some assertion or supposed fact. So we mean doubt about the truth of certain actions taken by the armed forces of the Russian Federation during their invasion and occupation of parts of a foreign country, Ukraine.
Now, I will respond, assuming that this sense is what
@prodromos meant in post #105 above.
1) Why is skepticism to be applied to anything bad that Russian forces do, but not to the supposed "provocations" attributed to Ukraine? Who here has been to "Nazi" Ukraine and witnessed the Nazi Ukrainians running around, preventing Russians from making borscht (actual claim made in public, and up on site of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs site, YouTube link with English subtitles
here)?
2) Although Kyiv was the center of the principality that brought Orthodoxy to the East Slavs, there seems to be little interest in the role of that city or its rulers in the acceptance of Orthodoxy by a significant part of the world. For example,
Saint Vladimir the Great and
Saint Olga of Kyiv. Now, the presence of these saints in history and eternity surely does not mean that every little thing the civil government of Ukraine does is great. But why is this scepticism applied always in favor of the Russian Federation, whose head of state is a former KGB agent whose outlook and values were formed outside the Church as part of the state terror apparatus of a criminal and anti-Orthodox regime, and never in favor of Ukraine?