Ukraine’s Top Military Leadership: We Are Starting to Win, Russia Is Starting to Lose
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you’ll see one or two new videos a week of Ukrainian men being kidnapped off of the streets and stuffed into a van
When it's the police, we just call it "detained", even though it's the same thing. Saying "kidnapping" and "brutal measures" is a little saucy when this is exactly how the police where I live operate, too. We don't have conscription or a war on right now, but we have in the past, and we might in the future.
the political benefit of holding onto that land for just a little longer is worth more than the lives of real human beings. you are a soldier and you are expendable
That's pretty much the job description of a soldier. For example, this describes the recent American wars. They had lower tolerance for casualties, but that's just because it was an optional war rather than an existential one.
It was less that OP pointed out this stuff, and more that their "friend in Kiev" apparently phones them up about this and doesn't mention anything about the Russians who are perpetuating all this and could leave at any time.
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What does the ethnicity of the inhabitants of the eastern provinces have to do with national borders? Does Mexico have claims to Texas and California? Should the US conquer Canada because of the 10's of thousands of US natives living there?
If Ukraine was abusing it's population it should be censored, sanctioned, it's leaders prosecuted for crimes against international law, but invasion is worse than anything short of genocide. The people of Donesk and Luhansk have had their many of their communities completely destroyed. They are not better off because of the war.