Originally published at: Ukraine reports Russians shooting their own troops | Boing Boing
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Let’s hope there’s some truth to this, Russian troops rebelling. We keep hearing rumors… and fuck the people executing these rebellions.
Russia needs to lose this war and lose it bad, because that’s one of the only ways that we’re going to start pulling out of this global death spiral we’re in. If the Ukrainians can secure a victory, including pushing the Russians out of Crimea, then authoritarianism might start to lose it’s appeal to people in the west more generally. The far right in the US and Western Europe (and Australia too) idolize Putin and think he’s a tactical genius. If Ukraine can show the house of sand the far right is actually built on, how it does nothing to solve problems, and it can’t even win wars, than people might start to see might does not make right, especially when it’s not even actually might.
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So, should we be sending weapons to the Russians now?
It’s the Chechans carrying out executions of Russian troops (according to the article), as I guess they are more loyal than some Russian troops… 
But no. We should keep sending in material support to the Ukraine military and keep welcoming refugees.
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Mutiny you say, well that must be terrible for the Russians. Maybe next time make sure you have the money Vladdy before you start a War.
P.S. Mercenaries don’t fight in a War for free, you don’t pay, they don’t fight.
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Putin’s crony capitalist version of Stalin’s Order 227, if true.
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First it does not surprise me. I was waiting on that shoe to drop. But, I see no corroboration of this story in the three news sources I go to for such confirmation. BBC, AP or NPR.
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Nor are they keen to give up their lives for money. As we have seen, they are more comfortable staying well back from the actual combat zones and shooting deserters or retreating conscripts pour encourager les autres.
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Even if it’s not true then spreading the rumors can’t be helpful for the morale of Russian troops. The grunts are going to be more distrustful of their commanding officers than ever and the officers are probably terrified about getting shot in the back.
Russia has lost an astounding seven generals in the conflict already (for comparison, only one American general died in combat during all the years of American occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan) and I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if it turned out they weren’t all killed by the Ukrainians.
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There have already been reports of Russian soldiers killing their own officers.
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Frag the Chechens first.
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The seven Ukrainian sailors who’ve been stuck on a merchant ship docked in Philadelphia as Russia invaded their country have finally been allowed to go ashore — into the embrace of Philadelphia’s Ukrainian community.
The seafarers left the ship Wednesday morning and received permission at U.S. Customs and Border Protection office in Old City to stay in the country while their homeland is at war, according to Iryna Mazur, a Philadelphia lawyer and Honorary Consul of Ukraine.
The men were earlier spared from detention, which had been another possibility.
For nine months, one week, and four days, Captain Gennadiy Shevchenko and his crew had been confined to the Ocean Force merchant ship, a 348-foot-long and 66-foot-wide cargo vessel docked first in Delaware and since February in South Philadelphia, at Pier 82. They’d been performing maintenance and keeping the ship running while attorneys and advocates tried to sort out their future.
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Not entirely historically accurate but this comes to mind:
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It’s just another compounding layer of tragedy that many of the russian soldiers are said to be poor, untrained boys given a gun and a promise. Viet Nam was much the same, lot’s of poor kids with no options in life but the recruiters had a promise of money and glory and serving our country and besides there wasn’t anything else to do. Likely it was the same for the kids in Viet Nam except they were on their home turf and had a reason to protect something. And as always rich old men played power games using the bodies of kids who didn’t matter. Cannon fodder. I’m sorry kids, you deserve so much better.
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I remember my mother’s stories about the siege of Vienna, and it’s aftermath at the end of WW2. She made a distinction between the “veteran” and “disciplined”
combat troops, and the follow up “occupation” forces who replaced them. The occupation forces would often loot, abuse and rape. The Russian M.P.s, upon catching any solider in the act of rape, would summarily execute the offender on the spot.
This lead to many women being raped with a pistol inserted in their mouths during the act to prevent any outcry or resistance~
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Maybe blur that. It’s pretty triggering.
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Empirically speaking, fractricide might actually be the most effective de-nazification strategy currently available to Russian forces, so there is that.
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I apologize, I wasn’t looking to offend, just reporting what was narrated to me. What is “triggered”? (Honest inquiry).
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A “trigger” is something that has the potential to set off someone’s deep-seated trauma if they’re not forewarned to avoid it. In this case, you were reporting a fact from history, but that fact may be a lived reality for some readers. I’m sure they appreciate both the sincere apology and the edit to blur.
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Thank you for the apology and blurring.
There are historical groups collecting the stories from WWII victims, so that they are not lost forever. I suggest you contact such a group and see if they would like to record your mother’s stories, as recounted by you.
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