Highest single-day casualty number yesterday. 1380 Russian soldiers in a day. This may have been part of it. I feel sorry for each individual soldier and their families, they likely had no real choice and were between a rock and a hard place. But as long as they continue attacking, Ukraine has every right to kill or at least repel them by force. War is a terrible, awful business, any way you look at it.

[–] DrGeraintLLanfrancheta@nafo.uk 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@Hopfgeist @NoiseColor dear hopfgeist, a very balanced and humane answer. I humbly disagree though. In comparison to nazi Wehrmacht soldiers, Russian conscripts will not be shot. They will go to jail which is likely no fun. But they -have- a choice. Every second. Some surrender. The most don't. Since Bucha I have put my empathy for anything Russian very very very far away.

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the civil reply. I absolutely see your point. I do not have any first-hand (or even second-hand) information on that. I assume that conscripts who refuse to be drafted are most likely not shot, but imprisoned, although once on the battlefield, lured under false pretext, that may be a different story. I have a hard time, too, imagining a single conscript leaving his unit is called to surrender to the Ukrainian forces, especially when involved in a senseless assault on a stronghold.

[–] DrGeraintLLanfrancheta@nafo.uk 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Hopfgeist @NoiseColor reminder: they are still raping, killing, maiming their neighbour on their own neighbours land. Since 600 days. They could just stop. They don't. Therefore: The don't deserve our pity, they deserve what is happening right now. Until each of them on Ukarines soil is fertilizer. #DestroyRussiaOnceAndForAll

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Those that have a choice, and those that commit such atrocities, I agree, they don't deserve pity. But many will have some dignity left, and once in battle have little realistic chance to "just stop". We must be very careful not to vilify people solely based on their membership in a group. Each one deserves to be judged individually, when possible.

Kill them if they attack, or enable an attack, yes (this includes logistics far behind the lines: legitimate targets!), because it's a matter of survival of you, your comrades, and your country, but still recognise them as humans. Once going down the path of dehumanising the enemy, Ukraine will lose the moral high ground, which is paramount in maintaining the right to receive help from the civilised world.

I don't believe in "destroying Russia", besides its practical impossibility. Unlike Nazi Germany, Russia does have the ultimate doomsday weapon, and might use it if really threatened existentially (to paraphrase some propagandists: "If there is no place for Russia in this world, why should there be a world?"). That said, I have absolutely no idea how to deal with Russia. None. Every conceivable solution is terrible.

[–] bjeelka@nafo.uk 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

@Hopfgeist @DrGeraintLLanfrancheta Did soviet union had doomsday weapon?

[–] Hopfgeist@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Sure, they're called thermonuclear weapons, aka "H-bomb". City-killers. Many hundreds of them.