The Defence Forces continue to inflict losses on the Russian army; over the past day alone, the defenders killed 1,210 Russian occupiers and destroyed 39 armoured combat vehicles and 23 Russian tanks. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook Details: The total combat losses of the Russian forces between 24 February 2022 and 16 February 2024 are estimated to be as follows [figures in parentheses represent the latest losses - ed.
  • Chainweasel@lemmy.worldEnglish
    101·
    10 months ago

    400,000 people that could have taken up arms against their dictator but they chose not to.
    If being sent to the western front is a death sentence anyway, why not choose to die trying to live?
    I’d gladly take a bullet in the back of the head rather than starving and suffering frostbite for months THEN taking a bullet in the gut or bleeding out after having my legs blown off by a mine.

    Don’t get me wrong, there’s honor in defending your country and your freedom, but these men aren’t dieing for either of those things.

    • Wappen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      10 months ago

      Never put the blame on the people. Imagine you are a being forcefully recruited to fight in war. You have family at home. You have hope. And therefore you stay passive. There are 8 billion people on earth, including you, who could try and take action. After all, why try if you can at least try to survive?

      My words are a bit scattered, sorry for that, but I cannot stay calm when I see someone blame the people instead of the system. A revolution does not rise just because it seems fit. A revolution rises because oppression wasn’t fully successful somewhere. That’s my opinion at least. And if you look at history you will probably see the same patterns.

      Also being sent to the western front isn’t automatically a death sentence. You could be wounded and be taken to hospital, you could be captured and be put in prison, you could also simply try and survive.

    • Ech@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      10 months ago

      I’m not going to pretend there aren’t people that deserved their death there, but I’m positive there were also plenty of people that were just part of the machine and saw no way out.

      Any country’s biggest military asset is the poor populace that is promised a better life and then ground down into the tool or sacrifice that the leaders decide they need. Call it brainwashed or just “stupid”, plenty of the deaths even on Russia’s side were just normal people caught in a terrible conflict.

      And to be clear, I’m in no way suggesting Ukraine shouldn’t have defended itself, I just put the blame in Putin’s hands, not on the peons he throws into the grinder for his own vanity project.