Another story in the Euronews [Robert Hackwell, Caught Red-Handed: The Russian Major Fighting in the Ukraine, with accompanying video] points to what the Russian military is going through with the covert war in Ukraine. The Russian Major does not get to tell his family where he is going, or when he is coming back. When he is captured, transporting Russian military equipment to forces there, he carries a fake ID. Two years ago, one was captured with 6 IDs, one from the Russian Special Forces. This story is about the recruitment, the bait-and-switch on assignments, and being captured in a country where almost everyone speaks your language.
What is sad about these cases is the denials by Russia that they have troops there. That is what covert means. They want to have the ability to say, "We don't have Russian military forces in the Ukraine", while they run those tanks and personnel carriers across the border. When one dies, the family is not notified. I don't mean the government tells them a lie about what happened to their loved ones - they get nothing. They just don't get letters or phone calls from them anymore, and they must wonder what has happened. Why has my son stopped calling, visiting, or writing home? No grave at the Russian Arlington Cemetary for these guys. We might even feel a little sorry for this guy, who seems to have been over his head to begin with.
The Russians did a lot of things in Ukraine before ever going there, killing political opporsition figures, carving up the communications services, monitoring leaders in government, feeding propaganda to the locals, and giving them enough heavy equipment to shoot down a commercial airliner. All, while they say they have no troops there and are not at war with Ukraine. Even the Russians can't believe their own words.
No comments:
Post a Comment