Article by the Czech Anarchist Internationalists from the
"Anti-Militaristic Initiative". ---- Mainstream media outlets arepublishing articles about how the Russian military treats deserters
terribly. "Chained to trees, locked in metal tanks, or dragged behind
jeeps - this is the reality for Russian soldiers who refused to fight in
Ukraine ," they note. 1 ---- As usual, not much is written about the
equally horrific mass killings of Ukrainian deserters. One thing is
certain, however. The fighting capacity of both armies is based in part
on forced mobilization and torture techniques designed to deter
desertion and force even those who do not want to go to the front to do
so. While thousands of soldiers try to desert, others are sent to the
front against their will, hoping to live until tomorrow. That is, of
course, if a "suicide" drone armed with explosives does not happen to
land on their heads. On the Internet, we can see videos of such drones
belonging to the Ukrainian army killing Russian soldiers on motorcycles,
in trenches, on roads, in forests, plains, and elsewhere. 2
In most cases, footage of these events is accompanied by articles that
glorify them and cynically dehumanize the victims. They never ask who
these people are and how they ended up in the place where they were
mercilessly killed. It is impossible not to notice that even the
anti-fascist and "anarchist" movements organize fundraising for drones
for the Ukrainian army. And since - like the pro-Western mainstream -
this "radical left" environment also presents the war as a defensive
action against the occupiers, it is probably not particularly concerned
about the fact that its drones may be killing Russian soldiers who were
forced to go to the front under threat of punishment. In the logic of
the "defensive war," every Russian soldier at the front is a Putinist
and an occupier. 3 Thousands of deserters and forcibly mobilized
soldiers mean nothing to the adherents of this logic and can be
ruthlessly eliminated. 4 But what such an approach has to do with the
declared struggle for freedom and justice is something that the
supporters of this line will not explain to us. After all, most of them
do not have to face fire from either side in the war. They simply send
financial donations from time to time from the safe haven of a spoiled
petty bourgeoisie (or their descendants) and then write ideological
gibberish full of vague phrases about the struggle for freedom and
self-determination of the Ukrainian people.
In contrast, the soldiers on both the Ukrainian and Russian fronts are
mostly proletarians who do not have access to these privileges. Yes,
they are proletarians, because the proletariat has not ceased to exist
just because some people decided to remove this word from their
vocabulary. The truth is that many proletarians are at the front
involuntarily and under duress. 5 Very few of them have the means or the
documents to flee abroad. Many of them live illegally: they avoid banks,
they leave the big cities, they hide in the forests. If anything makes
sense from an anarchist perspective, it is to support them, not to
create drones to kill them or to track them so that someone else can
kill them. 6
Solidarity with deserters and those forcibly mobilized!
Resistance against those who create machines to kill them!
Class solidarity against the murderous logic of war!
For example here:
https://cnn.iprima.cz/ukrajinska-droni-elita-v-akci-madarovi-ptaci-vyzobali-rusy-na-motocyklech-ti-zkaze-neujeli-479487
https://cnn.iprima.cz/zabery-ukrajinske-likvidace-okupantu-ruskeho-vojaka-zachranila-lopatka-467046
https://cnn.iprima.cz/zabery-hruzy-v-ocich-kratce-pred-vybuchem-ukrajinske-drony-likviduji-ruske-okupanty-475517
And here:
https://www.msn.com/cs-cz/zpravy/other/ukrajinsk%C3%A9-drony-ude%C5%99ily-na-rusk%C3%A9-voj%C3%A1ky-v-lese/vi-AA1JzxmT
What we see in this video? A man in uniform with a backpack is walking
through the forest when he is suddenly shot by a drone. To the viewer,
this is presented as a sensational video about how Ukrainian defenders
stopped the occupier. However, the video does not make it at all clear
who he was, why he was there, and whether he even wanted to be there, or
was forced by officers and is under threat of punishment. He is dead and
no one will ask him.
The reality speaks for itself. Forced mobilization and the high
desertion rate in the Russian army prove that not every soldier on the
front is a supporter of Putin. On the contrary, many of them are victims
of Putinism, just like those who are being shelled in Ukrainian cities.
https://antimilitarismus.noblogs.org/post/2025/02/04/over-russian-18000-soldiers-desert/
The Solidrones initiative, which reportedly produces "drones for
anti-authoritarian fighters in Ukraine," states: "The defenders spend
tens of thousands of drones every month because a single precision drone
strike can destroy a much more expensive tank and hinder the advance of
the occupiers." https://www.afed.cz/text/8191/solidrones
There is no doubt that they use drones, which are weapons designed to
destroy and kill. But even if someone wants to argue that they can also
use drones for supply or reconnaissance, it is important to clarify one
thing. Even in such cases, drones serve as a means of supporting
senseless killing. There is no significant difference between a forcibly
mobilized soldier being shot directly by a drone and being tracked down
by a drone and then killed by infantry (often also equipped with
drones), artillery, or air force.
A number of other questions are also relevant.
Can the so-called "anti-authoritarian forces" that produce or operate
drones decide how and against whom they will be used? This would be
possible in the case of a guerrilla war organized autonomously outside
the state and against the state. However, this is not the case with
these people, who, by their own admission, are integrated into the
official state army of Ukraine. Therefore, the army authorities
determine how the drones will be used by the "anti-authoritarian forces"
and there can be no question of autonomy of action. What will these
"anti-authoritarian forces" do when their officers order them to use
drones to track deserters trying to escape? After all, this is one of
the tasks of the Ukrainian army, which they voluntarily serve.
According to surviving Russian soldiers, they were not allowed to
evacuate because a blocking unit guarding them from behind would not
allow them to leave their front-line positions and would fire if they
tried to retreat. Forcing soldiers to advance may be less risky in some
cases than retreating and deserting. This brutal tactic was used by the
army under Stalin, and today the Russian army is returning to this practice.
Forced mobilization and subsequent killing by drones are also well known
to the population in Ukraine. However, we do not know of a single case
where the production of drones by the Russian army was financed with
money from so-called anti-authoritarians or anarchists. In any case, we
must condemn the forced mobilization and murderous use of drones against
the working class, regardless of whether these practices are used by the
Ukrainian, Russian, or any other state army.
https://www.anarchy.bg
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten