Runaway Ukrainian Nationalists Warmonger From Abroad - Italian Journo
© AFP 2023 / AFP STRINGER
Subscribe
As US President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that includes $61 billion to continue propping up Kiev, growing numbers of Ukrainian fighting age men do whatever it takes to avoid being drafted to fight in NATO's proxy war against Russia. However, once they successfully flee the country, many allow themselves the luxury of warmongering rhetoric.
Most Ukrainian refugees are just happy to evade the grasp of the Zelensky regime and avoid imminent death in a doomed struggle. However, there is an active aggressive minority demanding a continuation of the conflict while remaining at a safe distance from the conflagration, in Europe, Italian journalist Andrea Lucidi told Sputnik.
Not at all eager to be flung into the battlefront meat grinder themselves, these Ukrainians have been flooding the streets of Italian cities, demanding more financial and military resources to fan the flames of NATO’s proxy war.
“In Italy, as in many European countries, there is a large Ukrainian community. It is interesting that the greatest nationalist impulses are displayed not by men based in their home country, but among Ukrainians who have relocated abroad. It is they who hold demonstrations in Italy,” Lucidi said.
However, the journalist is convinced that no amount of military assistance can change the course of developments in the Ukraine conflict. Ukrainians forced to remain in their homeland may face further draconian mobilization measures and a spiraling death toll as diehard nationalists engage in warmongering abroad.
“Other Ukrainians who may not have had the opportunity to flee the country after February 2022 by bribing the border police or Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) with thousands of dollars are forced to stay, doomed to be drafted and killed,” the Italian journalist said.
Lucidi noted that during interviews with Ukrainian prisoners of war, including those from the Azov* Battalion, as well as ordinary mobilized citizens, it turned out that many of them were unwilling to participate in hostilities. He added that some of them even have Russian roots.
“I conducted several interviews with Ukrainian prisoners of war... The mobilized ones with whom I spoke were ordinary people who do not want to fight, to participate in the combat operations… Many of them have nothing against Russia,” Lucidi emphasized.
Sputnik recently published interviews with Ukrainian POWs who chose life over death and surrendered to the Russian military. Most of them were grateful to Russia and surprised by the dignity and respect they were treated with.
Incidentally, an Azov* Battalion assault brigade, seemingly scared of Russia's advancing forces, recently refused to сomply with the Ukrainian command's orders, the Russian Telegram news channel Voenny Obozrevatel (Military Columnist) reported. According to the channel, the Azov Brigade subverted an instruction by Ukraine's Oleksandr Syrsky to send them to Chasov Yar in an attempt to hold the town in the face of Russia's offensive.
What’s in Ukraine's new mobilization bill?
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) February 1, 2024
The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has submitted an amended draft bill on mobilization to Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, as President Zelensky is seeking to draft a 450,000-500,000-strong contingent to keep the conflict… pic.twitter.com/zEUYwZCCYv
A veritable tsunami of refugees from Ukraine fled to European countries after the conflict escalated. Unemployed Ukrainian refugees have become a drain on many of the countries’ finances. The additional “economic burden” of Ukrainian refugees hit Kiev-supporting countries against the backdrop of soaring inflation, higher global food prices, and other costs.
Italy took in around 168,840 refugees from Ukraine by the first month of 2024, as per Statista.
As for Ukraine, military casualties have been stacking up quicker than the Kiev regime has been able to replenish the ranks of the armed forces. The huge manpower losses come amid a plethora of battlefield failures, and have overshadowed Western arms deliveries.
US lawmakers recently finally approved the latest $61 billion military aid package to Kiev, but even the Western press has acknowledged that an acute shortage of soldiers is Ukraine’s main weakness.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost nearly 500,000 servicemen, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. No wonder Kiev’s Volodymyr Zelensky, reportedly under pressure from his Western patrons, has adopted a new mobilization law.
Martial law was introduced in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The next day, Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization. Under martial law, men aged from 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving Ukraine. On April 11, 2024, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a bill on mobilization aimed at replenishing Ukrainian forces, with Zelensky signing it into law on April 16. The document will take effect on May 18.
The bill says that people liable for military duty must report to military commissions to clarify their registration data within 60 days after mobilization is announced. The bill also obliges people liable for military service to carry military identity cards with them during the period of mobilization and present them at the request of military registration and enlistment office employees, police, and border guards. This comes as increasingly violent tactics to to press gang draftees are used by the country’s conscription officers.
In recent months, there has been a significant surge in draft dodging, as well as desertion among Ukrainian military personnel. There has also been an uptick in the number of Ukrainian troops using the special Volga 149.200 radio frequency to communicate their desire to disarm, according to Sputnik's sources.
*The Azov Battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
