Russia can solve this problem tomorrow by withdrawing their invading forces from the sovereign country of Ukraine that they viciously and brutally attacked unprovoked in a disgusting and cynical attempt to return to Soviet-style regional hegemony. Everything that is happening to Russia is directly the fault of Putin and his corrupt oligarchic “government”, and a direct consequence of their brutalist authoritarian regime.

The only reason that Russia continues to destroy itself in Ukraine is because Putin has stupidly reconfigured Russia’s society, economy, and military for a meaningless war that they are woefully incompetent at fighting, and are now completely mired in. He must continue grinding away an entire generation of Russia’s citizens just to avoid collapse and internal regime change.

So, the next time you want to whine about the successful and justified tactics Ukraine uses to repel a brutal regime that bombs schools and hospitals, why don’t you preface it with the reason as to why Russia is doing this to itself.

This was already argued extensively. Basically what happens is the standard infantry gear every Russian soldier is fitted with sucks. No armor plating (or if there is, it’s fake), shitty weaponry, shitty helmets if at all. Hardly any cooking gear or anything at all really.

Now, second to understand is that the Russian army is basically a racket from top to bottom. If you start at the bottom, sucks man. You get extorted and people beat the shit out of you regularly.

So why Wildberries? When you’re conscripted into the army (and yes, conscription does actually occur quite regularly now in Russia) you’re going to need… stuff. To survive. Helmets, armor plating, a drinking tin, anything at all to survive basically. For yourself? Perhaps. If you’re Lucky. Most likely though your commander will beat you into buying it for him and he’ll pawn it off to someone else.

This has created a massive market for military gear to be sold by webshops like Wildberries where they sell armor plating, vests, jackets, boots, helmets, camping gear, med kits, you name it. It has essentially become a grey market.

That’s why Ukraine is claiming these are legitimate targets. They are, after all, supplying the Russian army in a way. Whether you agree with that stance is up to you, but that’s what their argument boils down to basically.

Edit; and to add: if Russia does not want Wildberries to be a legitimate target, it is also incumbent on them to make it not a legitimate target by restricting the sales of military gear for example. It is up to Russia to keep military and civilian strictly separate but as we know from Russian actions like using schools, hospitals and even a nuclear power plant as storage and/or staging areas for future assaults,

they don’t give a flying fuck about the distinction between civilian and military. Any claim from Russia that these are ‘not legitimate targets’ will inevitably be met with every single fucking civilian target that Russia has hit since the start of this war, from apartment buildings to train stations to a guy on a market with a fucking vegetable stand being hunted by a drone. So don’t come asking stupid questions and acting sanctimonious here and accusing Ukraine of these things while ignoring Russian actions.

There has been massive investigations and evidence of them supplying military equipment and using the platforms to skirt payment sanctions and restrictions

I’d really like to see the Russian intelligence that has them attacking purely civilian infrastructure and shopping malls. I doubt either of us will see either. But considering what Russia is doing and has done. I’m not that worried about it.

thank you for feeding my block list.