• silverlose@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        22 hours ago

        Russia? Not as far as I can tell. They seem to lose 1-1.5k people a day to lose ground. Ukraine has more tanks than the start of the war, and more of their own land back.

        I think the most critical thing is manpower. AFAIK we’re not sure how many Ukrainian soldiers are left (I couldn’t find anything if you do please link it).

      • Nalivai@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        19 hours ago

        So far all the land they gained was in that territory that they were destabilizing since 2014. They spend thousands of people and all the money to level small towns to the ground, after which Ukranian forces fall back from the rubble, and Russians technically take it. Sometimes they do that several times, because holding a bunch of smoldering derbies is actually hard.
        On paper you can call it taking the land. I don’t know what portion of the land they grabbed in the beginning of the war they still hold, I think it less than before, especially if you take into account Kursk region, but it’s hardly anything substantial.

  • Leviathan@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    1 day ago

    They throw their young generations into the meat grinder just to control resources. Putin couldn’t find a way to pivot to new domestic products so now people get to die.

    Fight war, not wars.

    • nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      does ukraine actually have resources? russia is gigantic what could they possibly need so badly

      • Lorindól@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 day ago

        Ukraine has lots of valuable natural resources, but Russia has much more of everything. The biggest reason for the invasion is most likely that Putin could not let a “brother nation” prosper and drift towards Europe and being a functioning democracy.

        Russia’s population might get wild ideas if they saw that their Ukrainian cousins’ standard of living starts to rise rapidly while they have to endure living under a fascist dictator. And substandard and underdeveloped infrastructure, due to the rampant corruption and a government who doesn’t give a shit about the areas outside the larger cities.

        • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 day ago

          It’s that but (playing devil’s advocate for a second) Russia “traditionally” had a huge buffer between Moscow and the evil west. If Ukraine goes European and -worse- NATO, then that evil west with their evil ideas like freedom and democracy is suddenly quite close to Moscow’s doorstep.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            1 day ago

            Not particularly, the problem is that Russia is stupid and would rather try to annex Ukraine rather than invest time and resources into the development of Siberia. Also they don’t want to actually improve things just make them worse.

              • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                1 day ago

                Well its either that or collapse, problem with Russia though is that the various ethnic and political groups that could’ve collapsed it easily were more or less wiped out during the holodomor. Specifically the ones in Siberia and the far east.

      • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 day ago

        I thought it was about access to that gasline without Ukraine intervention, but then they blew it up or something, soooo…nothing? Baby boy Putin has been anti-Ukraine for a decade at least. Seems to be about being anti-NATO and for “political power”, but I doubt Putin will gain any if they end up winning against Ukraine.

  • Madison420@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    1 day ago

    Let’s just remember Putin does have a sense of humor. Sending families of dead soldiers lost in what the world is calling a meat grinder literal meat grinders as presents is extremely funny in a way it absolutely shouldn’t be.

  • Teknikal@eviltoast.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    1 day ago

    Let them keep dying, it’s pretty obvious Russias weak if it wasn’t for the Nukes the rest of Europe would just pull an Iraq on them. I feel Russias real threat is probably China though they have a lot of land and it’s ripe for the taking.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 day ago

    The fucking Muscovites can continue to fertilize the earth. The loss of troops and material means nothing to the Russians. The asswipes will continue to use mass assaults until the soldiers or the public revolts. Until then, Fuck Russia and US Reichwingers.

    • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      They’re using money in lieu of skill. Eventually they’ll run out if it.

      Then no more high salary for the Russian soldier – and consequently, no more soldiers.

      • MonkeMischief@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        24 hours ago

        High salary? I thought at this point most of their fighting force is getting paid in “Not going back to that gulag for those heinous things you did to people back home.”

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          21 hours ago

          Most of them have enlisted out of their own free will. There are plenty of prisoners as well, but – at least to my understanding – they amount less than the people who enlisted for the money. Also, many of the enlisted prisoners are in it voluntarily because of money and amnesty. And many are simply forced to sign the “voluntary” contract by torturing them until they do.

          What I’ve been surprised with is that as long as you are alive, you almost always do receive your salary as a Russian soldier. And your relatives will indeed receive their compensation – assuming there’s evidence of you dying. There almost never is, and then you’re marked as AWOL, not as dead. And if you’re AWOL, your family receives no compensation. Ukraine has huge refrigerated warehouses full of Russian soldiers waiting to be sent home, because when they eventually reach the Russia, that country will either go bankrupt or has to say “we changed our mind. Although you sent your son to our war for money, we’re not actually going to pay”, which will seriously destabilise the Russia.

          This is indeed also why the Russia’s economy is such a very important factor here. There’s no way they’ll be able to fill the required 30 000 new soldiers per month with prisoners alone. They don’t have that many hundred thousands of prisoners available for that. Send too many and you will have prison revolts.

            • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              17 hours ago

              Hm, cannot find that article anywhere. I found two articles that talk about refrigerated trains bringing bodies there, but they don’t tell about the actual morgue at all. They are here:

              https://glavcom.ua/country/society/jak-v-ukrajini-zberihajutsja-trupi-likvidovanikh-okupantiv-reportazh-iz-morhiv-871633.html

              https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/features-61567949

              All articles I can find about the larger warehouse near Kyiv are from 2022. There are articles telling about swaps of Russian soldiers who have had influential relatives. In 2022 there has been a swap of 50 such soldiers – and the same amount of Ukrainians in the other direction.

              Starting from summer 2024, there are suddenly several articles telling about swaps of hundreds of bodies at once, so at that point something has changed. Of course, with the Russia losing 1300 soldiers per day, and therefore about 400 of their soldiers dying per day, swaps of 200 to 600 dead bodies a few times per month are not that very many, really. Even if most of the Russian soldiers die in areas unreachable by Ukrainians, that still seems like a very low number. There is some amount of pressure inside the Russia for getting some of the bodies away from Ukraine, but none of the halfways recent articles tell anything about how many Russian bodies are currently in storage somewhere, waiting for repatriation to the Russia. Based on the amounts of a few hundred at a time, I’d say there must be many that the Russia does not accept. But no information on where in Ukraine they are physically located at the moment. Kind of understandable, because the Russian military could bomb the morgue to get rid of evidence, if they found out where it is.

              It is weird that apparently no articles have been written on this subject in the last two years or so!

  • Doorbook@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    23
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 day ago

    Russian has been losing and the economy is collapsing since 2018 according to these news. Every other week I see something like this. Yet we dont see them retreating.

    900k is more than 50% of there forces according to wikipedia that list 1.5 millions.

    I highly doubt the accuracy of these news reports.

    • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      It is collapsing. Some people have interpreted the news as the economy being at the brink of an immediate collapse, but articles I have read have talked consistently of end of 2025/early 2026.

      The difference is, in 2022 and 2023 it was assumed that once it becomes clear that the Russia’s economy collapsing will be inevitable unless they immediately end the war, they would indeed end it. Now it’s clear that they will indeed go to the very end, allowing their economy to collapse and then the war ending as a consequence of that.

      So, yes, it was predicted that the economy will collapse by 2026, and the war would end in 2022 or 2023 to avoid that. But, the timetable of the actual collapse has not changed. Or, at least not the timetables I’ve been seeing.

    • GoodEye8@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      Their losses are clearly significant enough to bring a foreign army (North Koreans) to replenish their forces. Maybe not 50% but I don’t think it’s that far off.

      • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 day ago

        I have not heard of another batch of NK soldiers after the initial 12000. There are talks about them possibly sending another 12000.

        With the Russia losing 1300 soldiers per day as dead and wounded, the NK troops cover 10(+ maybe another 10?) days worth soldiers.

        The Russian army is shrinking by about 15 000 soldiers per month. That was canceled out by NK troops for one month once, and possibly another one soon.

    • poopkins@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      1 day ago

      I travel a lot, both for work and leisure, and wherever there’s no travel restrictions for Russians, like Thailand, UAE, or Egypt, it’s simply overrun with Russian tourists. And they’re rich, too, with the latest iPhones, Apple Watches and all the other fashion brands.

      As much as I’d like to see l say that Russia is feeling the impact of this war, empirically, I can’t say that it seems that way.

      • Որբունի@jlai.lu
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 day ago

        The richest people don’t care about the war, if groceries go up 25% that barely makes a dent. You won’t see the people who are actually suffering from this being tourists.

        • poopkins@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          20 hours ago

          Yes, of course, and I agree; I was only remarking that there’s a demographic that doesn’t appear to be affected by this at all.

      • Furbag@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 day ago

        Classism is present in Russia too.

        I watched a couple of YouTube videos from a normal guy who lives in Russia talking about what it was actually like to live in Russia around the time that Tucker Carlson did that weird state visit and he peeled back a layer of intentional propaganda that the American journalist was spreading - that Russians are living in some kind of luxury paradise. Sure, everything costs less over there, but people are also paid a lot less too. If you’re working class, it’s hard to afford enough food to put on the table sometimes. The rich, however, are not hurting for anything and a lot of big brand labels that said they would exit Russia just rebranded themselves or quietly re-entered the market after all the commotion about the war died down.

        • poopkins@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          20 hours ago

          I didn’t mean to suggest that it isn’t affecting the ordinary, working class Russian. My observation is that there don’t appear to be any less affluent Russian tourists.

  • index@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 day ago

    This is the reality of war. Millions of people die fighting over invisible lines on the map

    • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      This isn’t a war of lines on the map, really. The Russia’s goal is the end of Ukrainians as a nation. And breaking NATO’s article 5.

      • index@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        21 hours ago

        The Russia’s goal is the end of Ukrainians as a nation. And breaking NATO’s article 5.

        I don’t recall this being putin goal. Nations are invisible lines on earth

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          21 hours ago

          Countries are invisible lines on Earth. Nations are not.

          Nations are groups of people that sometimes fill some lines, often leave some parts among the lines unfilled, sometimes cross them.

          And nations can exist without any lines on Earth at all. If Ukraine was to somehow get completely occupied by the Russia, Ukrainians as a nation would continue existing. Until the Russia manages to actively purge them.

          The Russia’s official news agency that will not publish anything that Putin disagrees with, has written the clearest explanation about the genocidal goal. The important part is that in one part it said that all nazis in Ukraine must be exterminated, and in another part it defines Ukrainian nazis as “everybody who supports the regime of Kyiv”. And then there’s Putin’s speech on February 21st, 2022, which was supposed to take place just hours before the missiles start flying, although the attack then had to be postponed by two days. And then there are the three articles published by RIA Novosti precisely at 08:00 Moscow time on February 26th, 2022. And Putin’s speech from summer 2021.

          I wish I could find the version of the “What Russia should do with Ukraine” article’s text that is annotated in English language. I spent some hours looking for it a few days ago, to no avail. It’s somewhere out there in the Internet – I can remember having read it.

  • Doomsider@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    27
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    The world allowing the few to massacre the many for their personal gain has to be what we reject in the 21st century. We need to start arresting and trying every war monger for the murders they are.

    • bollybing@lemmynsfw.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Losses include casualties, where a combatant is just injured. That might be losing a limb, but in many cases its much less severe and they recover and return to fighting. 3 years is plenty of recovery time, enough for the same person to have been multiple casualties.

  • lumony@lemmings.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    2 days ago

    Lost, huh?

    Does that mean casualties? As in, not necessarily deaths?

    Russia has lost 1,330 soldiers killed and wounded over the past day alone

    I would assume the answer is ‘yes.’

    Fuck I hate the propaganda reporting on both sides.

    • seejur@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Including wounded is the official definition of lost, always been. No need to call propaganda, it simply how is defined.

      • lumony@lemmings.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        24 hours ago

        “Russia suffered x casualties in y time.”

        Just like prices ending in .99, a significant amount of useful idiots are going to look at the word “lost” and assume it means killed.

        That’s how propaganda works and it shouldn’t have to be spelled out for you.

        • seejur@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          23 hours ago

          Lost means “not able to fight”. If they lose a leg, they might be alive, but not very useful in the battlefield. Therefore the soldier, not the human, is lost.

          Most of it it’s because in military setting, those two are equivalent, sine the only thing they care is about how many abled bodies they have available for the meat grinder.

          • lumony@lemmings.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            23 hours ago

            Just like prices ending in .99, a significant amount of useful idiots are going to look at the word “lost” and assume it means killed.

            • seejur@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              edit-2
              21 hours ago

              What I meant is:

              Propaganda is writing 0.99 with the intention of tricking people into buying. Note here to purpose of writing 99 is used.

              Casualties was born from the necessity of generals to know how many troops are available. There is no psychological trick in there. Just because civilians misinterpret it does not mean there is a propagandistic goal hidden somewhere.

              See the difference?

    • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      24 hours ago

      A bit over one third of these losses are deaths.

      Typically in wars it’s about one sixth, and that is also approximately Ukraine’s ratio as well. For the Russia the number is very different because they don’t care for their wounded – many of the wounded are converted to dead through inexistence of medical care.

      So, 900 000 Russian losses equals a bit over 300 000 dead orcs/roaches/whateveryoucallthem.

      The thing is, for the war it doesn’t really have much meaning whether the loss is through death or a serious wound. It’s one soldier less all the same.

      • lumony@lemmings.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        23 hours ago

        The thing is, for the war it doesn’t really have much meaning whether the loss is through death or a serious wound.

        Not true. A soldier that’s killed isn’t going back home to his family. He’ll never have kids. He’ll never contribute to the economy ever again.

        Trying to say kills don’t matter in a war is retarded.

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          21 hours ago

          I largely agree with you on that.

          But, that depends on who is using the numbers. For immediate military use it is not important what happens after the war. For the general who is planning a war strategy, what matters is how much the army is losing manpower. For the society it does matter whether the lost manpower is dead or just missing one arm, but for the war strategy it doesn’t.

          Albeit, I do somewhat disagree with this myself. I keep arguing that although the total military losses of Ukraine are close to those of the Russia, it makes a huge difference that the number of dead soldiers is smaller even in proportion to Ukraine’s population than the number of dead Russian soldiers is in proportion to the Russia’s population. It also seems that Ukraine’s recruitment capacity (in absolute numbers) is at least on par with that of the Russia and it’s unclear if its maximum capacity has even been reached.

          Ukrainian soldiers seem to always receive decent prosthetics that enable them to remain in working life and be with their families. In that case it is not a huge loss for the society that a soldier has got seriously wounded. If the risk of death was as high as that of Russians’, there would be (even) less motivation to enlist.

          But, be it like this or that, the reality is that the common practice in wars is to assume it makes no difference whether the lost soldier is dead or crippled, and because of that, they typically count military losses, not military deaths. Regardless of how retarded that is.

  • venotic@kbin.melroy.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    187
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    3 days ago

    And they all died because one psychopathic old fart simply just wanted to take over majority of or the entire country of another for personal gain.

    • leisesprecher@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      78
      ·
      3 days ago

      Hey, that’s not fair! Most of them were not killed, but only mutilated too much to be ableish-bodied enough for the russian army!

      (Serious note: this is the casuality number, that includes deaths, but also soldiers with wounds that put them out of service, like lost legs)

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          24 hours ago

          Some they do, but actually most they don’t. The casualty rate is about 40 000 per month, meaning that there are about 25 000 cripples per month. The Russian recruitment capacity is about 25 000 to 35 000 per month depending on the source, so there should be about one cripple for one four-limbed soldier if all of the cripples were sent to the front. In reality, their number is a tiny fraction of that, as we can see in the videos.

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          24 hours ago

          Russians don’t really defect. They are told that Ukrainians will torture them for fun if they are caught alive and then kill each one, so it looks for them as if a 99% chance of dying on the field is still better chance than 100% chance of torture and then death anyway.

          And because the Russian soldiers honestly believe this is how Ukrainians behave, they do that very thing to Ukrainians “in revenge”.

          If they defect to the rear, they are shot by kadyrovite sheep enthusiasts.

          So, whether the number includes defects is largely irrelevant. Maybe they do, maybe they don’t, but that won’t affect the numbers even by a tenth of a percent.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      It’s not mere personal gain with Putin. The man has a vision of returning Russia to glorious Soviet Union. Probably felt kicked in the balls when it all fell apart. Remember, he was the head of the KGB, an extraordinarily powerful man. Maybe even more powerful than the Premier? Dunno.

      He likely felt he would quickly crush Ukraine, make them an example, and then move on to other lost, and weaker, countries.

      • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        24 hours ago

        He was never the head of KGB. He was planted as the prime minister by KGB precisely because the big guys at KGB believed they could control him when the prime minister becomes a president by the president resigning.

        The other important people in KGB would never have allowed for the head of the KGB to become the president if the Russia, because they were his competitors.

    • bigFab@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      24
      ·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, but let’s keep hating every russian, because they ‘freely choose to enlist’ and invade other countries. They love being shelled by Nato artillery 🥰

      • Fluke@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        2 days ago

        Riiiiiigght.

        Be conscripted and die, or fight conscription and die.

        Cowards to the last man.

        • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          24 hours ago

          Russian soldiers are mostly not conscripted, but enlist because the salary of a factory worker in a rural town is around 70 € per month, whereas the salary of a soldier is about 2000 € per day, which means a monthly salary each day, including weekends.

          They go killing because they are okay to kill others in order to get a richer life for their family. And that’s not an okay reason. They have chosen their fate and deserve death.

      • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 days ago

        They didn’t freely choose to enlist but if you put a gun in my hand and tell me kill that innocent person I will rather shoot the person giving me the order

        • bigFab@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          22 hours ago

          Easier to say than to do. But for the ‘innocent victim’ case you should look instead at Israel. That’s where the innocents are killed by en mass by direct order.

        • ThisLucidLens@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          2 days ago

          I think both of you are oversimplifying.

          Choice and freedom take on an entirely different meaning when you have a state media bombarding you with anti-Ukraine propaganda 24/7. It’s easy for us to say from the sidelines that we’d never get swept up in a war against innocents, but probably a lot of the soldiers have been fully indoctrinated with the idea that Ukraine are a threat to their families. Not to mention they probably now have friends and family who have been killed or wounded in this war.

          Putin is the real villain here. He not only started the war, he’s the one who has kept it going by his refusal to withdraw troops, silenced political opposition, lied to his population, influenced global politics in his favour by buying elections, and used his subjects as fodder in this pointless war.

          It’s fucking twisted the amount of suffering one thoroughly evil man can cause.

          • bigFab@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            22 hours ago

            Well, now you are oversimplifying world politics to one man’s deeds. As if Nato expansionism did not play any role in the creation of this conflict. Read a little history before 2023 and you’ll see acquiring Ukraine is been a race between Nato and Russia since at least 2014.

            • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              21 hours ago

              Russia had already invaded in 2014, and successfully got a puppet as president in 2010.

              NATO doesn’t expand by conquest, countries choose freely to join and other countries (especially hostile ones) don’t get to dictate the alliances of their neighbours.

        • SenorBlanco@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          They were probably told Ukrain had Weapons of Mass Destruction, and so it’s their DUTY as defenders of freedom to invade and stop these terrorists! … oh, wait

        • catloaf@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 days ago

          What if I told you they’re not an innocent person, they’re a Nazi?

          And if you refuse to fight Nazis, maybe it’s because you’re a Nazi yourself, hmm? Maybe we’ll investigate you for that, and keep you in prison while we do. And of course we’ll be investigating your friends and family to see if there are any Nazis there too.

          That’s the condensed version, but you get the picture. There’s a lot more going on than just “here’s a gun, kill them”.

  • CheeseToastie@lazysoci.al
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    2 days ago

    I’m going against the grain here, but I just think this is really sad. A lot of these people will have been decent people, loved by decent people and some have been brainwashed. It’s a horrible, terrible human cost cos of a dictator

  • _druid@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    113
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    3 days ago

    You have more in common with those soldiers than you do with the warpigs pulling the strings that led them to their deaths.

    • meeeeetch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      50
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 days ago

      I’m pretty sure everybody on these websites knows they’re more similar to enlisted soldiers than to Vladimir Putin.

    • Unpigged@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      68
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      So… You have a lot of common with people who are ready to go kill in exchange for money?

      Oh wowzies.

      Also what a damn bad dichotomy: either side with killers for money or those who pay them to kill.

      For once, a normal human being will not side with either of.

      edit: oh keep them downvotes coming, keep yourself counting all y’all who think killing for money is ok ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

      • Gordon Calhoun@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        44
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        3 days ago

        You mean the 18-30 y/o men who are conscripted into compulsory military service for a year? Kinda sounds like a lot of them might not have much choice, barring gulag or suicide, in the matter.

        • PugJesus@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          24
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          3 days ago

          tbf, most Russian conscripts are not involved in the war - men sign theoretically voluntary contracts in exchange for extra pay or reduced service time to be deployed outside of Russia.

          That being said, there’s a great deal of coercion that’s involved, so while you can resist pressure to sign a contract, it’s not unreasonable to think that a significant minority felt they really didn’t have a choice.

          • Gordon Calhoun@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            25
            arrow-down
            3
            ·
            3 days ago

            I just believe the righteous antipathy is better leveled at the Russian government, specifically Putin, than the anonymous cannon fodder.

            • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              23 hours ago

              I live in Finland, where about five percent of the people are Russian-speakers. Half from the Russia, the other half from Baltics.

              My image of them has changed dramatically since 2022. I’ve had a job where I encounter a lot of different low-educated workers, and that has a included several tens of Russian-speakers. There has been precisely one among them that has not been repeating Putin’s talking points.

              Nowadays I try to steer clear of everyone with a Russian name because I don’t want to ruin my workday. When they hear that I’ve lived some time in Ukraine, the war easily comes up. And then does the propaganda.

              Having this experience has been something I really wouldn’t have wanted to have. I have indeed met Russians who are decent people. But, all of them have received other citizenships already years ago, because if you don’t believe the Russian propaganda, you see what a horrible country it is, and want nothing to do with it.

              If someone has not left the Russia by 2025, they have a reason for that. They stand for Putin’s fascism.

              • Gordon Calhoun@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                22 hours ago

                Thank you for sharing your personal observations and experiences. They sound even more insufferable and dangerous than MAGAsites in the US.

            • Unpigged@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              12
              arrow-down
              5
              ·
              3 days ago

              I prefer to hate everyone willing to kill me, my friends, my family, take over my country equally. Especially so, if they do it for money, for ten years.

              Hard to grasp such a complex concept, I understand.

              • Gordon Calhoun@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                5
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                3 days ago

                I can understand why you feel the way you do and cannot dispute it is a hatred you’ve earned.

                Just like I wouldn’t be able to blame any Canadian for hating every US soldier if the US were to invade Canada.

                I personally feel bad for every person involved in something as horrible as fighting in a war. I wish their hearts, brains, and energies could instead be employed in something peaceful, helpful, and beneficial for the future.

      • faultywalnut@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        3 days ago

        For a lot of people, yeah actually. It’s all relative to each country’s general economy and propaganda, but there are a lot of people around the world either already in the military willing to die or kill for their country because of patriotism or feeling like there’s no other career paths for them, or that would take up the call if conscripted by their country.

        Then think about how hitmen, assassins, sicarios and those type of criminals are usually from poverty or lower class and just regular people that descended into a life of crime and kill for money. Yeah, I think it’s actually quite common for regular folk to be killing others for money unfortunately.