Hey, just made an account after lurking here for like a year or so. Anyway, I just got out of a rather exhausting conversation with some friends where the topic of Ukraine came up and I tried my best to give a reasonable overview of why people in Crimea/DPR/LPR would support joining Russia, complete with several sources on the brutality of the Ukrainian government in the years since Maidan. Almost immidiately I got hit with "Well I have Ukrainian friends who say that Russia is the problem." I've noticed very often that people will trust what they've heard personally from people they know over any evidence you give them. My question is, has anyone found an effective way to get through to people who entirely base their stance on an issue on what the people they know personally have to say? How do you show someone that they need to look beyond what their token friend has to say and actually study the topic themselves?
Since you say you are friends with them, you could try putting it to them like, "So you trust your Ukrainian friends on this but you don't trust me? Do you not take me seriously, as someone who puts thought and research into things?"
(The point is not that they should trust you blindly, but to put it to them indirectly why it is they are seemingly trusting their Ukrainian friends on this blindly, but not taking your views on it seriously.)