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Ukraine and the Russian invasion, 2022-24

I think a lot of us applauding more and better weapons for Ukraine are hoping they will limit the bloodshed by shortening the war. Perhaps this is naive? And/or perhaps we are undervaluing the lives of young Russians who have no choice but to fight? If not for Putin there'd have been no invasion in 2014 or 2022.
 
will no-one think of the young Russians

-wrings hands-
It's a human tragedy in Russia too. Tens of thousands of sons, fathers and husbands never coming home and as many crippled or maimed for life. And if it does go all the way we can hang on to the hope of rubbish Russian missiles but they'll be flattened for sure. Do Russians not deserve your sympathy by virtue of their government?
 
My point (if it was anything much to do with you) is that we should not be wringing our hands about dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine. There is no "the Russians"...of course I have enormous sympathy with the Russian opposition, people in Russia who hate this but have no choice but to be silent, young ethnic minorities pressganged into going there since the war started.

For people winding up dead through military adventurism / professional Russian soldiers & mercenaries carrying out criminal and illegal orders, engaged in widespread looting, rape, indiscriminate destruction, mass deporation, manning filtration camps, state-sponsored child abduction...forgive me for not giving a shit if they are killed.
 
will no-one think of the young Russians

-wrings hands-
The ones commiting war crimes. No fuck them.
You don't need a 4 hour power point presentation to know shooting civillians ,rape and stealing anything not nailed down is wrong.
The weapons being sent are mostly 2nd hand so already been paid for. So would either be fired off in training or scrapped.
A Russian was claiming the worst thing for Russia is the soldiers who come back will have been brutalised like the afgan veterans before them and be ready recruits for the Russian mafia.
 
My point (if it was anything much to do with you) is that we should not be wringing our hands about dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine. There is no "the Russians"...of course I have enormous sympathy with the Russian opposition, people in Russia who hate this but have no choice but to be silent, young ethnic minorities pressganged into going there since the war started.

For people winding up dead through military adventurism / professional Russian soldiers & mercenaries carrying out criminal and illegal orders, engaged in widespread looting, rape, indiscriminate destruction, mass deporation, manning filtration camps, state-sponsored child abduction...forgive me for not giving a shit if they are killed.

If this is like most other wars then the ones doing those things are not generally the ones doing the fighting and getting maimed or killed. I think the casualties on the Russian side are entirely deserving of prayer and sympathy, as are their families.
 
It's a human tragedy in Russia too. Tens of thousands of sons, fathers and husbands never coming home and as many crippled or maimed for life. And if it does go all the way we can hang on to the hope of rubbish Russian missiles but they'll be flattened for sure. Do Russians not deserve your sympathy by virtue of their government?
Depends how they conduct themselves
 
I absolutely want the Ukrainians to win this horrible war.
I feel sorry for the low rank guys - often barely out of childhood - sent to their deaths by the Russian state for no good reason.
It's shit that many of those are people from ethinic minorities looked down on by Slavic Russians. Ditto poor people. Obviously a big overlap there.
It'd be impossible to work out exactly how many people could/couldn't say no to fighting. I doubt those without much social capital felt in a position to refuse.
Fuck those who've committed war crimes.
Whole things a horrible bloody mess.
 
I absolutely want the Ukrainians to win this horrible war.
I feel sorry for the low rank guys - often barely out of childhood - sent to their deaths by the Russian state for no good reason.
It's shit that many of those are people from ethinic minorities looked down on by Slavic Russians. Ditto poor people. Obviously a big overlap there.
It'd be impossible to work out exactly how many people could/couldn't say no to fighting. I doubt those without much social capital felt in a position to refuse.
Fuck those who've committed war crimes.
Whole things a horrible bloody mess.
Wait till you see the aftermath
 
I think if you had signed up then you kind of were. Orders and that.

"according to Nuremberg Principle IV, such an order is sometimes "unlawful" according to international law. Such an "unlawful order" presents a legal dilemma from which there is no legal escape: On one hand, a person who refuses such an unlawful order faces the possibility of legal punishment at the national level. On the other hand, a person who accepts such an unlawful order faces the possibility of legal punishment at the international level.

Nuremberg Principle II responds to that dilemma by stating: "The fact that internal law does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from responsibility under international law."[45]

This might present a legal dilemma, but Nuremberg Principle IV speaks of "a moral choice" as being just as important as legal decisions: "The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him".
 
I doubt you'd have a very good time in your regiment after stating that though.
If you get a discharge (which does happen, there were 6 on grounds of conscientious objection between 2001 and 2010) then you're not in a regiment anymore. That's how discharges work.
 
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Didn't know that. I thought there were ways out for conscientious objectors etc. They need a union.

My basic point still stands, blame the system not the canon fodder and don't revel in death.
I recall a couple being done and sent down for refusal to go.

Done for being AWOL IIRC
 
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