WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE ITALY SICILY- news journal UPDATE - (en) Italy, Sicilie Libertaria #452: Desertion, boycott to stop the war (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Since February 2022, the armies of the Russian Federation and the

Ukrainian Republic have been militarily confronting each other on a
front line extending several hundred kilometers. The war, with its ups
and downs, shows no signs of ending. Advances of tens of kilometers,
retreats, cities and villages conquered by both sides at the cost of
enormous destruction and thousands of victims. On one side, the Russian
superpower, with inexhaustible arsenals; on the other, the Ukrainian
republic, supported economically and militarily by the United States of
America, the European Community and NATO countries. From a regional
conflict, the war in Ukraine has quickly transformed into a conflict
between imperialist blocs, with the use of the best war technology
available on the market today. Drones, missiles, electronics, artillery
and latest-generation devices are being tested directly on the
battlefield and are marking a new page in the history of armaments.

But the proclamations of alleged victories, of breaking through enemy
lines hide a deep nervousness that is poorly concealed by the political
and military leaders. The request for ever greater armaments, more
powerful weapons, devices that can strike deep into enemy territory
tries to hide the real problem that military commands have: the lack of
human flesh.

Yes, there really is a lack of cannon fodder. The same problem that both
Kiev and Moscow have: there is a lack of men, the armies are tired, the
number of deserters has become very high.
The slaughter of young lives and the destruction of towns, cities and
infrastructures that began on February 24, 2022 sees no solution of
continuity. The same unsuccessful attempt to divert the attention of the
Russian army from the Donbass front, intent on conquering the key city
of Pokrovsk, with the Ukrainian invasion of the Russian region of Kursk
hides the great difficulties in waging a long-lasting war.

The US CNN with a merciless report on the war and the NY Times turn the
spotlight on the very high number of desertions and demoralization among
Kiev's troops. In 30 months of war, Kiev's armed forces have been
decimated by mass desertions. Desertions are increasingly frequent and
reinforcements are few and far between. The soldiers at the front are
demoralized and tired. CNN and the NY Times, which are certainly not
tools of Putin's propaganda, are sounding a very serious alarm bell for
them.

The front is essentially supported by ideologically savvy volunteers,
such as those of the Azov battalion and other neo-Nazi groups who have
been taking up arms for ten years. In the first 4 months of the year
alone, Ukrainian prosecutors have initiated criminal proceedings against
almost 19,000 soldiers who have abandoned their positions or deserted.
CNN has revealed this in a report dedicated to the situation of
Ukrainian troops on the front.

Young people who are forcibly mobilized have serious problems with
discipline and insubordination. This has been particularly evident in
the Pokrovsk region, where there is still very strong pressure from the
Russian armed forces to conquer this very important Ukrainian logistical
hub.

Soldiers sent to the front line often desert en masse, leaving the front
exposed. Ruslan Gorbenko claims that there have already been over 80,000
cases of unauthorized abandonment of units. According to political
scientist and former MP Oles Donii, in 2022 there were nine thousand
desertions, in 2023 they rose to 21 thousand and in 2024 they are
already 37 thousand. Estimates of desertions in the Ukrainian army vary,
but not by much.

Desperation and the fear of going to die "for nothing" encourages escape
across unsafe borders. The Dniester on the border with Moldova, the
Tisza on the border with Romania, the Pruth are dangerously crossed by
young conscripts with life jackets and inflatable boats. Ukrainian
soldiers and conscripts continually try to escape, even by swimming in
the frozen Ukrainian rivers that lead beyond the borders. Many, many
have been found, blue in their terrible death. Young people fleeing the
barbarity of war who often lose their lives in the search for salvation.
But the borders crossed clandestinely are also those of Belarus and
Russia itself.

To these daring escapes it must be added that since the beginning of the
war Ukraine has lost 14 million citizens - out of 42 million inhabitants
- most of whom have fled or taken refuge abroad. An enormous hemorrhage
that includes not only women and minors, but also thousands of
deserters, and risks leaving Ukraine with a shortage of manpower and
conscripts to send to the front.

Since the beginning of the war, at least 650,000 Ukrainians of
conscription age have managed to flee abroad, a very high number of
deserters that clashes deeply with the project of numerical
strengthening of the Ukrainian army wanted by the former head of the
armed forces Valery Zaluzhny, recently fired by Zelensky.

Roman Kovalev, battalion commander of the Kiev army, declared in the
Ukrainian Telegraph that in infantry units the phenomenon of flight can
concern "up to 30 percent of the soldiers".
A commander of the Pokrovsk front declared to CNN: "Not all mobilized
soldiers leave their positions, but most do, when the new arrivals
realize how difficult it is. They see a lot of enemy drones, artillery
and mortars. They reach the positions once and, if they survive, they
never return. Either they abandon their positions, or they refuse to go
into battle, or they try to find a way to leave the army»

Zelensky asks for more F16 planes, more Himars missiles, more tanks and
cannons, more powerful weapons to strike deep into Russian territory,
but without men on the field, wars cannot be won. The promulgation of
martial law that categorically prohibits the expatriation of men between
the ages of 18 and 60; the choice to increase penalties for deserters
has not stopped the flight of thousands of young Ukrainians. And many
young people prefer to end up in cells in Kiev than go into the trenches
under Russian artillery fire.

The choice not to die for the masters' war also unites thousands of
young Russians who, at the outbreak of the conflict, for fear of
compulsory conscription, have abandoned the country en masse, heading
towards the Central Asian and Caucasian republics. The choice to boycott
the war, to "not serve the homeland", the individual and collective,
ethical and political refusal to participate in the war machine, is
extremely important in the face of the international war scenarios that
are inflaming not only the European continent but also the entire Middle
East. Desertion, refusal and draft evasion now involve several tens of
thousands of conscripts of the Ukrainian and Russian armies, effectively
putting their respective military commands into crisis. Our task is to
support in every way those who concretely oppose the war, those who
oppose taking up arms against another proletarian whose only fault is to
be under a flag of a different color. The war between states, the war of
the masters, is answered with boycott and mass desertion, with the unity
of the people against the bloodthirsty and warmongering masters.

Renato Franzitta

http://sicilialibertaria.it
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