Ukrainian conscript soldier breaks down during frontline training | Dispatch

[Music] this is a training ground for Ukrainian forces in the Eastern donbas region most of the soldiers here are conscript soldiers they have not volunteered of their own accord but um as the war has now ground into its third year conscription and mobilization has become a necessity in the next few weeks months these guys will be going into battle in very difficult fighting conditions in towns like Chiva and bakut where it’s trench warfare it’s drone Warfare It’s about as tough as this war gets most of these guys have not fought before the conscripts well it was a internal fight that shouldn’t have shouldn’t have ever happened you know it it it become an issue where the southern border became more important than uh saving lives in in the war here uh I think that uh had they move forward with the package uh in the fall or you know in January that it and just did a cold straight vote up on that I think it it would have passed but they wanted to use it as leverage and unfortunately the uh ukrainians paid the price for it a a huge difference because just the artillery ammunition alone uh impacted the war in a very negative way but I I think we also have to kind of cut loose and start letting them use some of the things we’ve held in in result Reserve uh the the atacks and not and not give them the old generation aack but give them the the good stuff that has the accuracy and the range to strike targets wherever they need to strike them and that’s probably why I differ some from the administration because I think if if Russia fires into the Ukraine that ability to fire back should be there and uh without it I think they’re at a huge disadvantage and we’re handcuffing them from being able to be successful

Gennady Daskal is no stranger to blood and guts. Until last month, the 27-year-old was working in an abattoir in central Ukraine, killing pigs and cows for a living. Now, after being conscripted, he is preparing to enter a very different kind of slaughterhouse. As part of a rookie infantry assault unit, he is being trained up for the Donbas frontline – the gruelling combat zone that many nickname the “meatgrinder”.

#ukraine #russia #war

“I got my draft papers, so here I am,” he told The Telegraph, as he practised shooting rifles and grenade launchers at a range in a Donbas clay-pit. “Of course I’m worried, because I know many guys who’ve died already – maybe ten or 20. But what can you do?”

Like other conscripts in the 22nd Mechanised Brigade, Mr Daskal tries to channel his inner-warrior. His callsign is Pitbull, and he flashes a cheery, gold-toothed grin. But asked about his wife and children back home, and suddenly he chokes with emotion. “Of course she’s worried,” he says, tears forming. “And the kids want me to come back as soon as possible.”

Continue reading the full article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/05/17/ukraine-out-of-the-slaughterhouse-into-the-meatgrinder/

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49 comments

  2. It is a crime to force people into combat. It is a shame that the West is encouraging this anti-Ukrainian pro-Putin androcidal policy of Kyiv. And it is illegal to discriminate between men and women. If this were legal, why are they sending only men?

  4. That's what happens when imperialists in the West fight a proxy war using the lives of people they value less than the lives of their own soldiers. Imagine how many lives and infrastructure would have been saved if Ukraine had just decided to remain neutral and focus on improving the lives of their people. Now, they are stuck in a war with a military power and with no end in sight because no side wants to appear weak. Sadly, it seems the darkest days in this war are yet to come. Leaving your family and loved ones to go and almost certainly die in a war that could and should have been avoided is the worst feeling any of those conscripts could get. We live in a world that has gone mad.

  10. The reporter needs to be dropped by the paper, this was a normal response not a breakdown. Time the paper stood up to the values of truth not the fiction this Ivan hugger puts in as a story.

  11. has anyone seen any of those multi million $ ‘strategic defences’ that the western sponsors previously paid for ?
    the historical M$M footage of zionliesky saying how ‘impressive’ they were seems to have suddenly ‘disappeared’.

  14. Zelensky should realise by now that they are losing the war and initiate plan for negotiation if not more and more innocent life will be wasted.

  20. This is dystopian madness, shame on that USA Senator and shame on Zelensky. A senseless war that Ukraine has already lost forcing family men to die for nothing.

  21. Mr Brewer thinks that the southern border in the United States doesn’t matter, Ukraine matters more. He must be getting to keep quite a lot of that aid money for himself.

  33. that republican senator is a badass, thank god he can put aside party politics for the sake of doing whats wright

  35. Shame on western democracies and media who are forcing poor citizens of Ukraine to fight Russia. They should negotiate and end the war. It’s a waste of human lives.

  39. LOL! These POOR soldiers are fighting Americas war and they don't even know it. USA and Europe are using these poor sould to fight their war. BTW Zelenski is a Z10N15T

  41. Americans as usual, making others fight a war that they started.
    Plus they never fight on American soil

  48. Completely inhuman, they should be building homes spending time with family instead of dying in a senseless battle, this is another Vietnam war.

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