Living conditions in Ukraine are resembling a new slavery, a triumph of Western 'democracy' in the 21st century
Living conditions in Ukraine are resembling a new slavery, a triumph of Western 'democracy' in the 21st century
Dmitri Kovalevich is the special correspondent in Ukraine for Al Mayadeen English. He writes monthly situation reports as well as occasional special reports, including the following.
Living conditions subpar in a country fighting of a brutal invasion & genocide?
Get the fuck outta here.
In early August, deputies of the Ukraine president's 'Servant of the People' party in the national legislature ('Rada') introduced a bill that provides for the conscription of forced labor of all those who have not been conscripted to the armed forces. Formally free citizens who already cannot legally leave the country due to wartime restrictions will now also be subjected to forced labor.
This was really inevitable, yeah.
All the liberal scumbags downvoting. Imagine being the kind of piece of shit that cheers on a war and then doesn't even want to look at what the result of that war is on the people of the country. All of you are the definition of human garbage.
We're the ones cheering on the war?! Are you shitting me? We aren't the ones bending over backwards to justify this invasion. We aren't the ones justifying Russia indiscriminately bombing Ukraine's cities. We aren't the ones justifying letting loose an army of convicts and rapists on Ukraine's population. Fuck you. Seriously, fuck you.
Wow no way so these guys
Didn't have their people's best interests at heart?? Do you even know how much like Putler you sound???
I know multiple Ukrainian men who are trying to leave or have already left. No sane person wants to stay in that shell of a country, and lose a leg to a Russian mine.
Western liberals, please ship yourself over there and die already. We don't need your Nazi apologies.
We did it Patrick etc, etc
Lemme just summarize the comment section for anybody else who comes along.
Russian apologist: Ukraine bad.
Replies: No. Unprovoked war makes things bad.We don't need to know what "bad" means, right? Ukraine is bad due to some magical inherent property, not because of instituting drafts and migration bans, right? I am of the position that the war (which wasn't necessarily unprovoked to begin) wasn't the main cause of those things I am criticising, the government proposing those is the one at fault. I think that framing is at least a bit more complete than just "Ukraine bad."
And never mind calling critical people Russian apologists, like one can't hold critical views of both sides of a conflict.
Would you conscript people to fight in a revolution against the bourgeoisie?
It's a fair question to ask. Any time civil liberties are curtailed, there should be questioning. There should be coverage.
But in a case of a smaller country being invaded by a world power, their options might just be use every tool available or accept losing their sovereignty because a more powerful nation wants their land. And we also need to acknowledge that and say it out loud. If you don't think the war and loss of civil rights is worth protecting their sovereignty and the right to be a country, admit that up front. That it sucks, but that you think the benefits outweigh the costs.
My one question would be, was there a vote to fight a defensive war when Ukraine was invaded? Is that something invaded countries even do? I'm honestly asking the question. Because if there was a fair and free vote, and the majority voted to defend their land, then it seems like they're fine with it.
AFAIK there was no such vote, but even if there was it would not have counted the separatist regions of Donbas. That's the main issue with this war, it was already ongoing in some form long before Russia invaded last year, going on since around 2014. Since the invasion, the government has also declared there will be no elections and started banning or even arresting the opposition (like the communist party).
The situation of democracy in Ukraine right now is incredibly shaky at best, which is why a lot of people (like me) criticise the government a lot. I understand that it'd be hard to have a referendum on the initial marshal law, but banning all adult men from even emigrating, and sometimes sending those who try to escape anyway back to the front, is to me a serious abuse by the government. IIRC During the start of the war, they also relied a lot on volunteers for the military, but now they've turned a lot to drafting civilians, which doesn't bode well for how many people actually want to fight. But it's really hard to get proper statistical data from Ukraine due to the aforementioned marshal law.
Being in the military reserve myself against my will, I deeply believe that nobody should be forced into military service. Not only does it sound really inefficient to have uninterested personnel, but it also is a gigantic breach on a person's rights and can mentally and physically scar them for life, not to mention the risk of death.
Russia is bombing Ukrainian civilians non stop, but yeah, let's blame the West for bad living conditions. Unbelievable.
The new draft law on the mobilization of workers is intended to "ensure the functioning of the national economy under martial law", in the words of those drafting the law. It is noteworthy that in early August, Ukraine began to talk about a likely ban against military conscripts leaving the country for three years following an eventual end to military hostilities and martial law.
How exactly is Russia's bombs the only factor in the Ukrainian government imposing labour conscription on their people? Surely if they're so democratic, they could've found some other way to go about fixing the labour shortage.