Russia Condemns Its Soldiers To Death #ukraine #russia Things in Ukraine continue to be a shit show as the war slowly approaches its second anniversary in a few months. The biggest fighting has been focused on the city of Ahv-deev-ka which is right on the doorstep of the breakaway Donetsk. Russia has reportedly lost thousands of men trying to advance on the little town of 30,000. Well, formerly of 30,000. Now just 1,350 people still live there as most of the town is a ruin and the home of a growing battle. There are also now reports that Russian troops are advancing from many sides of the town, although at the cost of the highest Russian casualties since the war began, according to UK Defence Intelligence. Right now they’re averaging 931 losses per day, which is even higher than the battle of Bakhmut, which averaged 776 losses per day. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean Russia isn’t gaining ground, because they are in the region. But at the cost of human lives, and it’s definitely taking its toll as that’s been the strategy since day one. Right, AP and Intelligence officials just released intercepted phone calls of Russia soldiers from the front lines. Most of these come from the start of 2023 during the battle of Bakhmut, but if this was the sentiment back then, it’s probably just worse now. In some calls, they’re pretty candid about the war, saying things like: “No one needs this. This is simply genocide, a genocide.” Others were well aware of the fact that Ukraine was getting more and more advanced arms from the West, saying: “This is just a huge testing ground, where the whole world is testing their weapons, f it, and sizing up their d. That’s all.” And there were many open calls for people to dodge the draft, with one man telling his friend: “I’m telling you honestly, if there’s even a slight chance, get exempted from service. But if the summons comes for mobilization, f it to hell. Join Wagner or the contract soldiers, or wherever you can. God forbid the mobilized. The mobilization are the lowest.” Right, he then went on to explain that the contract soldiers at least get some days of leave and get to bathe and launder their clothes regularly… The regular soldiers? Often no leave for months on end and no regular way to clean themselves or their clothes. All-in-all there’s a sentiment that what would already be a miserable experience -- you know, getting sent to war -- is made even worse by the way Russia treats its drafted troops. But Russia isn’t just stopping at treating its troops poorly. It’s now also moved to weaponize the migrants it has, but not with guns. Instead, it’s being accused of funneling them to the Finnish border to attempt to have Finland take them on Before this last month, Finland would get less than one asylum seeker a day from the border. But over the last month there’s been 900. It got to a point where Finland closed every border crossing with Russia except one in the Arctic. When Russia started using that one, Finland moved to close every border crossing. So now, if someone is seeking asylum they need to use a maritime port or an airport. Unfortunately, the people suffering the most in this exchange are the asylum seekers, who are stuck in frozen northern Russia with few resources. The border will remain closed until December 13th. As the war grinds on, I’m sure we’ll continue to get developments like this as everyone is dealing with the various ways Russia is trying to strike back at every perceived diplomatic insult. - @philipdefranco