6th of March, 2022. International News. Russia/Ukraine War
[lastupated]
Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine
For these men (and sometimes women), it was only a matter of obeying orders. It was only a matter of service to country. They were doing only what they were paid and trained to do. These men probably did not want to harm their brothers and sisters in Ukraine nor be killed by them. But they had no choice. The moral responsibility did not rest on their soldiers but squarely on the shoulders of Vladimir Putin. In the eyes of Ukrainian, these men are villains and murderers, minions of the devil, Putin. But for Russians, they are fallen heroes. They leave behind children, mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters to mourn long after they are gone. In the statistics, they are only the fraction of a number, but for those who knew them, they are precious human lives.
But the ugly truth is that Vladimir Putin couldn’t care less about the soldiers whom he sends to sacrifice their lives for his over-inflated ego. He doesn’t even have the decency to give the fallen heroes an honorable military burial. A recent decree by the Russian government orders that, in order to save time and money, Russian soldiers killed in combat will have their identities stripped and buried in mass graves – containing an average of 300 soldiers each.
The decree also states that if bringing the soldier home from Ukraine is too costly or problematic, then the body may be disposed by crushing it under heavy machinery such as under the caterpillar tracks of a military tank – and it will filed in the statistics under “losses.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government has urged Russian soldiers in Ukraine to surrender to the Ukrainian government and promised them safety and comfort in Ukraine if they do so – in order to de-escalate the war.
