Aggression against recruitment officers has become increasingly threatening, police say.
Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr7k5ngde3vo
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
This is an insane take. BBC is probably as far from authoritarian communists as you can get ideologically.
But even more the article is literally written by Sarah Rainsford who was expelled from Russia because of her reporting.
The facts are not in question. The narrative some people push or imply about those facts being in any sense Ukraine’s fault is.
Yes, Ukraine has to make some shitty decisions because they are facing an existential threat from a hostile, much larger nuclear-armed neighbor currently occupying a quarter of their country and engaged in a brutal and relentless hybrid war against their government, culture, and civilians.
That’s not Ukraine’s fault. That is Russia’s fault. If you’re angry that Ukraine is unfairly conscripting Ukrainians and those Ukrainians are then getting killed on the front lines, and I think we should be, because it’s true it is very unfair: direct your anger at Russia, who is directly at fault for all of this unfairness and for the fact that front lines exist where these conscripts are getting killed. We would all like to see it end. Russia can start the process at any time by ending their illegal war of aggression and occupation, ceasing fire and going back home. Returning all the Ukrainian children they kidnapped would be the next step. Then, maybe they can start negotiating peace by figuring out how they are going to compensate Ukraine for everyone that was killed and everything that was damaged or stolen during their illegal invasion.
These are not “maximalist war goals”, these are fundamental requirements for justice and lasting peace, at least if you believe in a world where “might” does not make “right”, which I strongly argue is something we all should all insist on at all times.
None of that is in dispute.
Why the double standard? We accurately call out Russia for sending their conscripts to a meat grinder, but saying the same about Ukraine is off limits?
Russia is at fault for starting the war, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And Ukraine has the right to defend its sovereignty and conscripting is one of those tools, but necessity of it doesn’t negate the harm that causes and people are allowed to criticize that state action.
And to be fair, they are actively trying to reduce those casualties by replacing people with robots on the frontlines.
Maybe you need to bring it to another level to understand?
If 2 women each kill another person; one in self-defence of a rape; one because they had a nice watch she wanted.
Now, don’t get lost in trying to build in details that make it more ambiguous, just examine if you would truly continue to call out the victim who merely didn’t want to be a victim.
Yes, because Russia is doing so by choice, whereas Ukraine is doing so for survival. Context and motives matter.
I would agree that the citizens are allowed to do so. However, even those directly impacted, as per the article, are reluctant to do so not for fear of retribution, but because they understand there’s a very delicate balance with regards to morale and such. Given that, any interference by us foreigners is likely to be unwelcome and unconstructive.
And yet it uses the neologism “busification” that you can for sure see plastered on pro-Russia communities.
Exactly the sort of emotionally evocative word game that is, if not coined by conservative propagandists, then eagerly exploited. For example when those feel-don’t-think phrases appear in the BBC.
Did you even bother to read? It’s literally in quotes because it was used by Ukranians themselves in this article.