Quote:
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In late May, a Russia newspaper in Ryazan city reported that several Cuban citizens had signed contracts with Russia's armed forces and had been shipped to Ukraine in return for Russian citizenship.
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I always do voluntary legal contracts when I perform human trafficking. Sounds more like mercenaries than "human trafficking". [Article does not support headline]
Anyway...
Ukraine has put out the call for extra mobilization, asking for women with medical experience, military academy training, and "partially able" men to sign up. My friends are either afraid to leave - even for a holiday ("I might get stolen" [taken hostage]), some are losing confidence in the Ukrainian government ("I thought we were fighting for freedom, but it turns out to be propaganda") or just stopped caring about the air raid sirens and ignore them and don't bother going to the shelters. It's been going on for too long, Ukraine clearly isn't winning, and if you aren't winning the war, you're losing the war. Russians aren't going through any of this, because it's not happening in their backyard. Nor are the Americans or any other NATO countries. Just the Ukrainians suffer and "millionaires are deciding who lives or dies" [their words, not mine]. They used to be fiercely anti-Russian, now they're conceding that people are people, and it's not about citizenship but who the fuck is making these stupid decisions about literal warfare. We've moved on from fighting stupid battles with 20 year old men, humanity has grown up - or at least I'd like to think so.
Cool that Cubans are helping Russia (or not), but Ukraine is running out of men.
You could say the Russian military operation has "failed" if you assume there is a specific concrete objective, but if slowly grinding the Ukrainian people into submission is an objective, you might say it's a success. Just my opinion of course, and I never supported actual warfare, so of course I have a bias.
But it's not a specific argument, just a report of what the Ukraine people are telling me. They're certainly not optimistic and gung-ho about going to fight Russians.