Two things.

I tried to go back to this article many times before publication. It was really hard to motivate myself to finish it. 

My last straw to finally get it online was this article [1]. Apparently Ukraine decided to mobilize an additional 160 000 people. Almost 200 000 male citizens will be sentenced to die in this stupid war…​

I remember how the war started, and it taught me one very important lesson. Flee right after your country is attacked.

During the time I worked at mapping company, where we could observe huge traffic in Kiev. Extreme traffic jams like blood lines covered maps, which indicated that many people don’t really care about their country and value their life more.

I’m neither Ukrainian nor Russian. And I don’t think this makes any difference for this post. Today I decided to share my thoughts and shed some light on how draft military service works in Ukraine.

Before the draft happened, we all observed how both sides died. They were dying mostly due to altilery shelling and drone attacks. Not much close combat took place, and when it happened, granade was usually what was the winning argument.

During that time, I saw a lot of gore videos about war. These allowed me to learn how little value of a man means for 21st century combat.

Skill is not that important when you have good gear, drones, and support of heavy weaponry. 

With all these advancements, we could see the rapid death rate grow on both sides. 3 sometimes 4 to one, just as statistics show. This meant that at some point Zelensky will have to organize a draft. And ohh boy he did it.

Before the war in Ukraine, I did not really think about it. Mendatory military service always sounded to me like a prison, but now I could finally see what it looks like.

With many new videos captured by Ukrainians, I could finally see how little European country can care about your life. 

Random men from the streets were beaten, humiliated, and sentenced for mendatory service. All of that to satisfy meatgrinder machines from both sides. Kill or get killed; hunt or get hunted.

How to cheat the system and live? There are many ways to do that. Breaking legs and arms, pretending to be disabled or gay. With each month, it was harder and harder.

It went to a point where Ukraine also started to use convicts at war. After thatthe ones who were clearly not supposed to be soldiers, and it kept going.

After the border closed, it was clear for many men of my age that there was no other way than to hide. Hide to save your life.

I’ll show you the private collection of videos that I found on Mastodon, 4Chan, and other websites that do not give a fuck about censorship.

All of this should give you a greater overview of the whole situation of the draft.

As I mentioned before, these videos come from Russian and Ukrainian draft police. I cannot distinguish them, but some of them are clearly Ukrainian. You can see this by checking street names, license plates, or simply the flag on uniforms.

Any country that sentences its citizens to death is a fascist country. Currently, draft happens in most of Europe, the USA, Asia, and Afrika. [2] [3]

We live in a world controlled by fascists, and it just breaks my heart.

I think our societies cannot be perfect. There will always be someone who disagrees with the majority.

I don’t think that the right to live or save life is something we should put on debate terms. Draft is a disgusting way of showing other countries "we will defend ourselves till nothing is left.". 

Systems around the world vary, but do medium and lower classes not really vary that much between different systems? I can literally imagine a system for which I could die. Or injustice in this world, which would make me enroll in the army. It’s not current Europe, USA, China, or Russia.

Is it worth dying for your country?

I think this decision should be made by individuals. Not bilionaires, politicians driven by greed, nationalism, or simply lust for power.

One last thing. Rich people do not die in wars. Kids of rich people neither. Only the ones who struggle each day to survive get stripped of their right to live.

[1] “The Ukrainian Armed Forces plan to draft an additional 160,000 people, announced NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Lytvynenko during his address to the Verkhovna Rada.” [Online]. Available: https://mstdn.social/@Free_Press/113397066230091796.

[2] “The Return of the Military Draft.” [Online]. Available: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/10/military-draft-conscription-soldiers-technology-nato-europe-russia-ukraine/.

[3] “European countries back to discussing compulsory military conscription. Nine still have it.” [Online]. Available: https://www.eunews.it/en/2024/05/15/european-countries-back-to-discussing-compulsory-military-conscription-nine-still-have-it/.