War in Ukraine fuels fears among draft-age Russian youths

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

As Moscow’s forces bog down in Ukraine, many young Russians of draft age are increasingly jittery about the prospect of being sent into combat. Making those fears particularly acute is an annual spring conscription that begins Friday and aims to round up 134,500 men for a one-year tour of military duty.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu pledged at a meeting of the military brass this week that the new recruits won’t be sent to front lines or “hot spots.”

But the statement was met with skepticism by many in Russia who remember the separatist wars in the southern republic of Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s, when thousands of poorly trained young men were killed.

“I don’t trust them when they say they won’t send conscripts into combat. They lie all the time,” said Vladislav, a 22-year-old who is completing his studies and fears he could face the draft immediately after graduation. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing reprisals.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-russian-youth-draft-fears-0553c8ac5981758826f973e2103348e0

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Who wants to die for Putin's failed ambitions?

They aren't stupid. I imagine that young Russian people are as media savvy as most of their world-wide peers, in developed nations. They know what's really going on in the Ukraine and they want no part in this war.

[Raster]

2. Dear Russian Male Youth:

Your glorious leader, #TsarVlad needs conscripts for his illegal and immoral war. He and his generals, have already LIED to thousands of soldiers about their "assignments" and duties. Something else #Vlad won't tell you is that approximately 20,000 of you have already died, but #MotherRussia is NOT allowing the dead soldiers bodies to be brought home to their families, because they are lying about how badly #PutinsWarInUkraine is going.

When Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu pledges that new recruits won’t be sent to front lines or “hot spots," He. Is. Lying. You will be #cannonfodder. You WILL be sent to the front lines. You WILL be sent to hot spots. You WILL be treated like a cheap commodity. Your life will NEVER be your own again.

[UTUSN]

3. aHAH, bears out my decades' suspicion that the anti-Vietnam protests were more about anti-Draft

than anti-war.

That was the main lesson that CHEENEE et al. took from the Vietnam era: Don't use a Draft for war mongering, it just injects a foot-shooting tangent into the desired war thingy. So we've been all-volunteer ever since.

[old as dirt]

4. Deemed too dangerous for broadcast in May 1968

The Catonsville Nine original 5/17/68 footage