In audio intercepts from the front lines in Ukraine, Russian soldiers speak in shorthand of 200s to mean dead, 300s to mean wounded. The urge to flee has become common enough that they also talk of 500s — people who refuse to fight.

As the war grinds into its second winter, a growing number of Russian soldiers want out, as suggested in secret recordings obtained by The Associated Press of Russian soldiers calling home from the battlefields of the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine.

The calls offer a rare glimpse of the war as it looked through Russian eyes — a point of view that seldom makes its way into Western media, largely because Russia has made it a crime to speak honestly about the conflict in Ukraine. They also show clearly how the war has progressed, from the professional soldiers who initially powered Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion to men from all walks of life compelled to serve in grueling conditions.

“There’s no f------ ‘dying the death of the brave’ here,” one soldier told his brother from the front in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. “You just die like a f------ earthworm.”

  • SCB@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    That again just reinforces the nonsensical “veteran mindset”

    Being in the military is a job. I supporting taking care of veterans the way I support paying teachers vastly more.

    It isn’t an identity. It’s just a thing a person did, for compensation, years ago.

    • Cinner@lemmy.worldB
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      11 months ago

      It isn’t an identity. It’s just a thing a person did, for compensation, years ago.

      A thing that only certain people do, and no one outside that small number of people actually realize what it was like and what life is like after. So having a “club” where you can go and hang out with people who actually understand what life was/is like after doing what you did, isn’t a bad thing.

      I’ll repeat what another member said above:

      The VFW is a club that hopes it withers away from lack of new members.

    • splicerslicer@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Unfathomably naive. Of all “jobs” done for “compensation” the military is the only one where you can be forced against your will to kill or be killed. To watch people die by your hand, to watch your friends die. To watch Innocents die. For some types of trauma not restricted to the military alone, there is no “getting over it”. It lives with you the rest of your life

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        That’s why those people should seek mental health professionals, preferably for free.

        • 20hzservers@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

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            • 20hzservers@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              I’m here to help and provide information or assistance on a wide range of topics. If something seems weird or if you have a specific question or topic you’d like to discuss, feel free to let me know, and I’ll do my best to assist you!

              –ChatSCB