‘I’m beginning to understand that we’re not on the right side.’ WSJ spoke to Russian fighters who surrendered in Ukraine. — Meduza
web.archive.org
The Wall Street Journal spoke to several Russian soldiers who surrendered to Ukraine and were taken prisoner in the early days of Ukraine’s offensive. The outlet confirmed the identities of the prisoners of war, but withheld their surnames and identifying pictures in their report. The men, “a mix of professionals, conscripts, and mercenaries” describe intense pressure from Russian military command and authorities in Russia to fight at any cost.

One captured Russian soldier says he worries about what will happen if he is returned to Russia in a prisoner swap. “If I have the opportunity, I’ll refuse to be exchanged." Another fighter reported that a doctor declared him unfit for combat after he was wounded in March, but his commander ordered him back to the front.

  • 🇺🇦 seirim @lemmy.pro
    17·
    2 years ago

    Now they think it? Nice, how about back when they invaded a country who was sitting there peacefully for no f’ing reason?

    • cloaker@kbin.social
      6·
      2 years ago

      How can they just barely begin to understand this. I know the propaganda machine goes hard but not that hard

      • lemillionsocks@beehaw.org
        25·
        2 years ago

        It’s easy to be skeptical of propaganda from the outside looking in, but once your immersed in it then it can be difficult to parse out reality from fiction.

        Case in point look at shockingly large percentage of americans, many even from the north, who will argue the civil war was a matter of states rights. Hell the US went to war against Iraq and it initially had strong support because we were still reeling from 9/11.

        It’s important to always keep in mind that NOBODY is immune to propoganda or group think, nobody is above the narrative, and the people who think they are tend to be particularly vulnerable.

      • SugarApplePie@beehaw.org
        24·
        2 years ago

        Propaganda is pretty effective no matter where you are in the world. It’s why many soldiers can do horrible shit to civilians in occupied territory and only later realize that they did something terrible. Here’s hoping we start hearing about Russian mutinies from more soldiers with similar realizations.

        • nmac101@kbin.social
          6·
          2 years ago

          I have a Russian friend and no matter what, i can’t make him understand he is believing in propaganda. He says he wouldn’t want to betray his whole family. I hope someday he understands.

          • Ragos81@feddit.de
            2·
            2 years ago

            I know exactly what you mean. I live since 10 years in #China and it is unbelievable what people think when they have no access to independent news. Even if they got access after some time, they’re not going to believe it, because it’s so different from what they got thought the reality is.

      • 0x815@feddit.deOP
        15·
        2 years ago

        History has been teaching us painfully often how quick people give up their individual believes for the sake of a centralised propaganda machine. It’d be very dangerous to think we are immune to it imho.

      • CynAq@kbin.social
        6·
        2 years ago

        I legit started studying social psychology to understand this and similar phenomena. It’s going slow but I hope to have a working understanding in a few years.

      • sub_o@beehaw.org
        4·
        2 years ago

        I mean, propaganda doesn’t need to be 100% effective to be damaging.

        Look at the world’s oldest propaganda medium, religion.

    • bear_delune@beehaw.org
      6·
      2 years ago

      they invaded a country who was sitting there peacefully for no f’ing reason?

      I mean… the US does that…

    • chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org
      4·
      2 years ago

      Who do you think gets captured and tossed into POW camps? This guy’s just some rank & file grunt who was either stupid enough to volunteer or unlucky enough to get drafted. In either case, I find it hard to blame him for being disillusioned after getting shipped off into a meatgrinder and realizing that reality didn’t measure up to the state propaganda.

      Hopefully these sadsacks manage to take something home from the experience that can stop the next war from happening before it wastes more young lives.

      • sin_free_for_00_days@lemmy.one
        4·
        2 years ago

        I can remember a couple decades ago I was talking to my grandmother and she said that for the most part people trusted the gov’t. Until my dad’s friends started coming back from Vietnam and spitting truth. I hope enough Russians go back and spread the word, but I worry that not enough will be alive to even go back.

    • hoshikarakitaridia@lemmy.fmhy.ml
      3·
      2 years ago

      There’s documentaries about how rampant the propaganda is, that people get imprisoned and killed if they avoid service, and that there are rituals in the Russian military where soldiers steal money and food from other “platoons” just to survive. Not even starting to describe all different kinds of hazing going on there.

      What I’m saying is, what they do is wrong and there should be more critical thinking and more uproar in the Russian society, but considering how jaded ppl out there are to government fuckery and the precarious circumstances, the soldiers are the last ones to blame.

      Let’s stick to the all encompassing Fuck Putin.