⭐ Merited by be.open (1)
be.interested to know your theories since you seem to be one of the very rare people here who have the analytical abilities to know and/or deduce anything about the goings-on on the ground.
Thanks, although I don't think this is the right topic for an exchange of pleasantries. Despite the abundance of fakes in propaganda messages (or maybe even thanks to them - because they affect the morale of soldiers), Ukraine deserves to have its own wall of fame in this story. I respect military prowess, even if it is the prowess of the enemy. If a soldier fights bravely and remains faithful to his oath even in the face of an obviously stronger enemy, this is worthy of a man, regardless of the outcome of the battle.
That sentiment mirror's what Ritter says, and I don't dis-believe it (vis-a-vis the military as opposed to the paramilitaries or somewhat attached militias), but I'm not real interested in the fighting forces here on this thread. I'm more interested in what can be deduced about the plans of the leaderships based on apparent conduct of the fighting forces. And anything you might read into it about shifts in those plans.
On your subject, I have run across indications of some level of demoralization of the Ukrainian regulars. I can say for sure that were I a regular and/or a conscript, the conduct of the more radical units would be pretty demoralizing to me which is why I said on the other thread that where I a Ukrainian regular, I would probably sell my Western supplied goodies to anyone who had money and wanted to buy. If I was pretty sure I could get away with it of course.
Going farther along the 'oath' thread, I will say that when I was a quasi-conscripted 20-something obtaining my (first and only) NDSM, I was pretty demoralized at the first shipment back into the newly liberated Kuwait was a gold toilet for the king in order to replace the one looted by the Iraqis. That wasn't the oath I signed. At least not in my mind, and I am happy to 'be my own lawyer' on such subjects. Back in those days there seem to have been a higher percentage of people who could think and read, and some of us were wondering aloud why we were clearing mines in order to restore a Monarchy. The answer was that we first have to get the king restored to the thrown and then we can work on converting Kuwait to a democracy. 30+ years later and I have not seen much action on that front.
Without the benefits of actually reading the oaths...I would not automatically hold it against any Ukrainian soldier who lost faith in his oath and acted in his own interest. I would not automatically hold it against any Russian soldier who did the same. I personally was not really a very model soldier obviously, but I was effective at getting things accomplished if I felt like it. That characteristic was more appreciated (and more well compensated) in the private sector
