Russia and Ukraine

[Leonardo17]

You know what?

I have no problem if Ukraine targets Russian military assets on Russian soil.  It doesn't matter if those assets are Russian soldiers, mercenaries, military bases, or hardware.

Russia has been indescriminately  firing missiles into Ukrainian cities, kidnapping children and murdering civilians.

There has to be a price paid for that.

So long as they don't start targeting Russian civilians or civilian infrastructure, I say have at it.

Personally, I’m seriously worried about soldiers on both sides of the conflict too.
 
I found a good Article on the state on the Russian Army on the internet. I’m going to compare this with my own military service which is considered as “below average” among the armies of OECD countries.
 
https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-armour-no-...12999.html
 
First the Russian have lost (at least) some 200,000 troops. Bur only 40,000 of these are “killed” (forgive my poor English)
 
1) We had little or no salary (That’s how it works here except for those who become officials after having some university degree)
 
2) We had very good / well heated dormitories + places where we could wash ourselves (even though with some difficulty). Our food was very good + we were able to buy extra food from several places if we wanted to. + I kept my uniform clean by washing it (by hand) once a week. I was (had to be) clean shaved all the time. Hygiene was not a major concern (our superiors did not care that much), I had friends who were stinking because they were to lazy to get a bath But I washed myself on a daily basis all the time.
 
3) Our uniforms and boots were not of very high quality. But as someone who hikes and like nature oriented sports, I can say that our summer uniform was ok (But it was the early 2000’s and summers were not as hot as today) and our winter equipment was ok too. Still. In cold weather, our guard duty dropped from 2 hours to half an hour (with soldiers having to wake up every 4 hours or so at night). We had good medical care too. In fact, I had friends from poor neighborhoods who waited to be conscripted in order to have some medical interventions done on them.
 
4) We had good tents / sleeping bags and other equipment to be used in case of a military conflict / earthquake etc. I was a simple infantry soldier. Commando units were practicing with this kind of stuff. I know nothing of trench warfare. But I’m sure it must be very, very difficult for both sides. I has to be totally inhumane even for the Ukrainians. They must be getting used to it somehow.
 
5) I did purchase my own kits yes. But it was all made in Turkey and it was good quality. It was not very expensive. And poor people didn’t have to do that. I did it only so I could have a second uniform while my own uniform was drying or was being washed in some place.
 
6) There is no “Zombie warfare” in the army. That happens in the Russian Army or in “The walking dead”. None of my officials would even send a single one of us to die without aa very good reason.
 
7) I had Kurdish (South-Eastern Region of Turkey) who somehow managed to bring join into the barracks. I was one caught using something like that. I had to apologize sincerely and the only reason I wasn’t punished was my connections. I saw some “well placed” soldiers having some alcohol on new-year’s eve (not me). We could smoke cigarettes. Some people went to the bar when they were on permit. I did not do that because we had to be back at 17:00 (if I remember correctly) and being late for even 2 minute would create very serious problems. We were allowed to smoke cones but we had to hide it when an official was nearby (That’s the Turkish military culture).
 
8) Our morale was also quite low. Army (even in times of peace) is difficult even in times of peace. Still, it was nothing like the Russian Army being described in this article. That’s not how army works. Even in combat zones, we had (not me, people who were there) were dropped some food in a can that were very nutritive and healthy for the soldiers. I’ve never heard of anyone being forced to eat “bad” food or anything like that. Still our rations were a little small so had had to purchase some extra food ourselves (which was also not bad at all). In fact I haven’t heard of anything like that in any 20th century armies. (Who gives ox meat to it’s soldiers?)