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An early burst of patriotic fervor saw draft centers swamped with volunteers, but that has waned with Vladimir Putin’s war in its third year.
The 28-year-old is one of thousands of young Ukrainian men keeping their heads down, dodging conscription and avoiding registering their details as required. Artem is cautious when he ventures out, and avoids places like metro stations where police mount document checks looking for draft-dodgers.
“Some of my friends are more paranoid — they never go out,” he says.
Artem has the air of a fugitive, with his baseball cap pulled down firmly and shielding his eyes even on an overcast day. Before entering the coffee house in downtown Kyiv to meet with POLITICO he gazes up and down the street, and once seated talks in a low voice so as not to be overheard.
When Russia invaded their country two years ago, young and old Ukrainians swamped recruitment centers to volunteer. Some were frustrated not to be drafted immediately, and complained loudly. The Ukrainian military couldn’t take everyone owing to a lack of resources and equipment, but managed to muster new units, expand established ones and improvise to halt Russian armor bearing down on Kyiv.
But that early burst of patriotic fervor has waned with the war now in its third year, the body bags filling, and men returning home injured and disfigured.
Pessimism about the future of the conflict is also taking hold, with ever more people questioning whether Ukraine is capable of defeating Moscow’s forces.
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I have nothing but respect for people risking their lifes to fend off Russia. It is probably more important than any individual life.
That being said, I have nothing but sympathy for any draft-dodger. I couldn’t imagine fighting in a war and I myself would hide as well. That may change if I’d have kids, but even still, I would never wish upon anyone to be forcefully drafted.
Draft dodging is such a hateful term.
It’s time for the world to step up and put boots on the ground against evil.
Every country in Europe “By all means, after you”
Everyone everywhere pretty much. This is war. I wouldn’t blame anyone at all for not wanting to fight.
France it seems is the only one courageous enough to make the first move. They will likely have boots on the ground within the next few months.
Every country in Europe after Russia spreads their war beyond Ukraine “Help”
Count me in. A conventional first-strike against Russian nuclear assets by the U.S. would be the most effective opening move as Russia is primed to begin using nukes against Europe and the U.S.
A first-strike (conventional) strategy would be the safest way to avoid the nuclear war Putin is so insistent upon. It would also likely result in an immediate end of Russian operations in Ukraine.
A plan that requires everything to go off without a hitch or the world will end is no plan at all.
The plan doesn’t require everything to go off without a hitch. Many things can go wrong and still result in success.
How would a Russian nuclear response be prevented if anything were to go wrong? You only need lose or miss one of their nuclear subs for this plan to go south. I’m not comfortable betting our existence on the presumption that they wouldn’t use nuclear arms if attacked by NATO
For people who work in defense, a Western first-strike scenario (conventional) is widely understood to be the option that results in the fewest casualties and the greatest possibility that no nukes detonate at all.
Your scenarios of doom presume that one sub could destroy the west. You assume that we would not be able to defend against their attempted launch when we’ve spent decades investing in top secret defense systems for this exact scenario. You assume Putin’s delivery systems will function after decades of maintenance by notorious black market scalpers. You assume Russian soldiers would be willing to erase their families for Putin’s attack order.
A conventional first strike means very few, if any, of Russia’s delivery systems would launch. It is extremely unlikely that any of them (if any were to actually launch, given all of the roadblocks I’ve mentioned) would make it to a target. Additionally, every soldier and leader in a warhead firing position knows an attempted launch of any nukes would result in nuclear annihilation of Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities. They also know that not launching means saving the lives of their families.
This game has been played out over and over again. If Putin launches before a western first-strike, we will suffer mass casualties. If we strike first (conventionally), it is extremely likely that we will suffer no casualties at all and it will also limit the casualties suffered by Russia.
So many things their allies could be doing better before we even need to consider boots on the ground. A good start would be to give them the equipment those boots would have at their disposal if boots were put to ground. With adequate artillery, air defense, and air craft they’d be suffering far less casualties.
Unfortunately, the other countries were only interested in using Ukraine as a pawn to drain Russia of resources.
Where is president Harrison Ford when we need him?
