As with any struggle, the war in the East besides has its anti-heroes – people who deviate from the military. During the first fewer months of full-scale conflict, this was a taboo subject in Ukraine and its friendly countries. It was broken by Ukrainians themselves – in September 2022, “Kyiv Independent” wrote about over 8,000 Ukrainian citizens who had tried to leave the country since February 24. At the same time, the Ukrainian safety Service (SBU) website for the first time published a communication on "identification of respective criminals who in return for remuneration (from $4 to $15,000) helped men of draft age leave the country without a legal basis". Since then, akin content has been posted all respective days.
At the same time, it is worth mentioning that 80,000 men returned to the country in the first week of full-scale invasion. This data was provided by the Ministry of abroad Affairs of Ukraine, stressing that the reason for the return was the desire to "defence sovereignty and territorial integrity". respective months later, the Ukrainian media space did not actually talk about voluntary return anymore, but increasingly the issue of forced conscription from abroad was raised. In the spring of that year, Kiev decided to appeal for these men – they were denied consular service, the allies' governments were being probed for the deportation of the "refugees", as the Ukrainian street calls them. According to estimates, it is 600–650,000 men, which would correspond to the current numbers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU).
Today, those who have taken refuge abroad, as if a small forgotten, and Ukrainians' interest is focused on the "refugees" in the country. Importantly, the character of communicative about decouncils is besides changing – they inactive come into contact with expressions of ostracism, but there is besides a increasing acceptance. Obtaining the “retreat” – postponements – is no longer a shameful secret, but it is simply a proof of life’s resourcefulness (and so success).
Before considering the causes of specified a situation, I would like to draw the attention of the Readers to a universal fact. Well, all army and war needs backdrops. Best of all, where life takes place – as far as possible – according to tired, peaceful rhythms. For war effort it is crucial to preserve the economical capacity of the state, which means a situation where any fight on the front and others work. besides abroad, erstwhile more money is easier there. Ukrainians who have taken refuge in Poland send powerful sums to the East – to the remaining families in the place. Even $5 billion a year. I do not know the value of all financial transfers, possibly six times higher (about 1 sixth of Ukrainian refugees presently live in the Republic of Poland). For the war-torn Ukrainian economy, it is simply a solid support, not to be developed in the country. Which we frequently forget erstwhile faced with cognitive dissonance. Completely understandable, due to the fact that on the 1 hand we hear and watch the accounts that show that the situation of Ukraine is bad, on the another hand, almost all day we encounter healthy and strong Ukrainian boys who are here erstwhile their colleagues and peers are killed and injured there, on the front.
Ukrainian soldiers shoot from mortar towards Pokrowska in Ukraine. Donetsk Oblast, July 31.
Now let's take a look at motivation. We Poles have “in the blood” a sin against our country, the quality of its services. We avoid that, despite all the disadvantages of this statehood, we live in a country located in a civilizational vanguard. Ukrainians, in the dramatic majority, did not have specified comfort and do not have it. We frequently laughter at the vanity of the “dubbit”, the Russian province, forgetting or not knowing that a large part of Ukraine looks the same.
Three 100 years of rusification, 7 decades of sovietization, pierced the Ukrainian community to the bottom. A lot to compose about, it is adequate to conclude that the negated value of the individual, in modern times brought outstanding thievery capitalism, including terrible corruption. We forget that the disastrous organizational culture and decades of lunar economy, at the entry (in 1991) made Ukraine poor, backward, ecologically devastated, materially any country. That this anturaż, combined with the Russian-promoted imagination of social relations – based on faithfulness, deficiency of initiative and mostly low expectations – has been marked in subsequent years by already formally free Ukraine. Ukrainians regained their independence, but did not regain their state, and many of them did not even have the ambition to fight for their own (in sociology, in this context, they talk of “taught helplessness). The oligarchs and caste - seized authoritative state of the common man was associated with infirmity ("failure"), indifference to the destiny of citizens and the necessity to give bribes. For almost everything, almost everywhere. In specified a country it was impossible to live – before the war broke out, 10 million people left Ukraine, 1 5th of the population.
What is there to defend (turn back and defend)? The thought of a dream country? Of course, but what if there is small that has truly changed? And despite the gigantic patriotic uplift of the past fewer decades. Politicians proceed to “take”, oligarchs stay strong – regardless of the restrictive rules, mobilization bypasses their establishments, not necessarily linked to production for the military.
I know it takes courage to go to the front. I saw with my own eyes that cowards in trenches have nothing to look for. And they smoke themselves, but they endanger others too. And if individual deliberately fled Ukraine after February 24, 2022, it was with large probability that he did so out of fear. From a purely pragmatic point of view, it would be better for specified a individual to do something useful elsewhere. For example, as a associate of an emigrant community that feeds the economy of a struggling state.
And erstwhile I think about it, there comes a reflection that a badly motivated soldier, stuck in a shackles not of his own accord, will not fight properly. This view firmly established in the public debate – straight transferred from the reality of the labour marketplace (there is no worker from the slave) – but in the case of troops justified in war? The top modern conflicts took place with the participation of immense soldier masses, mobilized and, of course, under duress. The large war – and this 1 in the East deserves specified a name – is impossible to "conceal" volunteers. And if we look at the bravest of the bravest – honored heroes of planet War I or planet War II – we see that most of them are boys from the draft.
I do not trivialize individual motivations, but yet the most crucial thing is the desire to survive, which, on the front line, boils down to the calculation of "or myself or him", and the actions behind it. The thing is, they're the more effective, the better trained, equipped and commanded a soldier is. The fact that these assets are of large importance is said by the “repealers”, the army's shortcomings and weaknesses, explaining its attitude. I long thought it was excuses until I saw a recruiting billboard in Kharkov in July that year. “We warrant 2 months of preparatory training!” promised 1 of the ZSU brigades. According to art, specified preparation should take six months...
