Lucky guys. Their best chance at surviving this war is not being prisoner swapped back to Russia.
Translation: Saved from being obliterated by HIMARS
Lucky bastards.
They get a hot meal and don’t get to bleed out on the ground.
For now. Eventually they will be exchanged and sent back to war.
Teenagers… Putin is slaughtering Russian youth for the sake of waging war and clinging to power
We don’t let people younger than 26 rent cars because they’re not mentally mature enough yet to be responsible. Yet we give them assault rifles and tell them to kill each other. This is a large scale issue across most militaries. For anyone over the age of 26, I want you to think back to how you saw the world when you were 18. Did you see the full picture? Or were you more easily influenced by people in positions of power because you were still a kid and you sought that structure? I’ll say this. When I first got to college I thought mass incarceration was made up and I’d never heard of “systemic racism.” No one had told me that “I don’t see color” is a racist thing to say. Those are the kids the world’s militaries rely on to maintain the global system of torture. Russia initiated an unprovoked war to enforce the global system of torture. To enter Ukraine and enact genocide. Putin’s policy is effectively Lebensraum. I want everyone to consider this, too. Very consistently throughout history, what comes for Ukraine comes for all of us. Its positioning between worlds has always made it a place where conflicting ideologies clash before spreading elsewhere. Whoever succeeds in this war, that will be the system of power we will all come to see in our daily lives.
For anyone over the age of 26, I want you to think back to how you saw the world when you were 18.
I had a rule that I think is solid… If I looked back two years and thought I was an idiot then I probably was still one.
27 year old me realised I’d become a man at 25.
That’s an incredible degree of self awareness and I admire you. I’m still trying to figure out if I’m an adult and what adulthood even means
Ah that’s very kind and I’d love to take that level of credit but tbh it came from a moment of reflection doing one of those things that we all do when we’re young which is to over-examine our previous actions.
Sometimes that’s really healthy and in adulthood absolutely imperative (edit: especially as a parent and I try so hard to be a good one) but when you’re young that looking back and cringing can lead to unkindness towards yourself when you’re still growing into who you’ll be.
It was just a decent moment of cop on but it really did serve me well.
Edit: And hey… Don’t stress too much about whether you’re an adult. As long as you’re trying to be a good person and reflect (not too harshly) on your mistakes then jog on, friend.
I don’t actually mind if someone’s been a cunt to me as long as they reflect on it and say sorry. We’re all a cunt occasionally because life isn’t smooth. Sometimes external stressors or being caught up in a moment cause you to behave in ways that aren’t you and result in regret. That’s OK. It’s the reflection with intent to improve and communicating it to your loved ones, usually by saying sorry, that’s really, really important IMO.
Except when there’s a draft, nearly all US soldiers spend the first 2 years of their duty as teenagers. In Vietnam, the combat rotation was 2 years; many men joined as teenagers, and died as teenagers. This really isn’t unusual.
You’re right about Putin, but he’s no different than any other leader of a country with a military WRT enlistment age.
As it always was.
The yellow and blue masking tape is a really nice touch.
RU’s had the second best army in Ukraine for a while now, seems like they now have the second best army in Russia.
Just remember kids, the invaders brought their dress uniforms because they knew it would be over in 3 days and there would be PARADES TO MARCH IN.
I love those blindfolds.
My thought was well. Sure they’re fighting for their country’s very existence, but that’s no excuse not to use the team colors!
Is there a meaning to the color?
Colour of the Ukrainian flag.
I imagine that the Ukrainians have a lot of extra blue and yellow tape laying around for uniform and vehicle identification purposes, so it made sense to use for a quick blindfold in this situation.
That is precisely why I asked. But, maybe I’m in the wrong assuming the color means something in this context.
Welp. Russia historically only responds to strength and their overall strategy has always been “keep dying in massive numbers until something big happens”. Usually that something is a crushing defeat that leads to revolution, but - they like to count their hits and ignore their misses. So - carry on.
They’re so young.
If the incursion forces are only so big, what do you do if there are too many prisoners? Are they sending them back to ukraine, is movement back and forth freely done, or is something like that more risky as it moves you away from the larger force as you go deeper.
They are being almost certainly moved into Ukraine proper. Russia has captured a lot of Ukrainian soldiers in the beginning of the full scale invasion. Those Russians will most likely be exchanged for those.
As for bringing them back, it is obviously dangerous, but Ukraine has drones and will monitor the area. Also once they surrender, they will not fight back. So less enemy soldiers in the region. The reason we see so many Russians surrender is that they are conscripts. They did not choose to go to war for money, but were more or less forced to go it. So moral is low and they are outclassed by the experienced battle hardened Ukrainians in the region.
Yeah, most of the people in Russia that wanted to go to war or were indifferent to it are already dead or still on the frontline, so a lot of the newest conscripts are people who didnt wanna fight, but were forced to do so anyway.
