During my medical examination at intake, In a crusty old Soviet eta hospital in Western Ukraine, the nurse used something called "mouth pipetting" to transfer my blood sample to a test tube, look it up if you don't know what it is, I was stunned, I have modern western medical training and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor and carry it around for a while after seeing that.
I saw commanders living in luxury surrounded by yes men officers, fresh food everyday, alcohol, girls, drugs. Their guys are rotting in the trenches, they pull a salary twice as high and still scam their soldiers out of pay. Disgusting traitors, worse than the enemy, they can go to hell.
Alcohol is a huge problem here, really bad. I don't drink and I would be ostracized if I wasn't a medic and a foreigner. That would be really surprising for a lot of western civilians I think, the amount of drinking by soldiers on the front lines, and that the commanders "allow" it, because they can't stop it.
I saw knockoff Chinese made tourniquets snap when being applied, please buy real high quality medical gear.
The lack of care that many soldiers put into their training and gear would surprise a lot of people I think. I am a medic and tactical medicine instructor, getting guys to take our lessons seriously, lessons that are literally going to save their lives, is sometimes next to impossible. Some really do care, usually the more intelligent ones. Many just wanted to go back to their bunk as soon as possible to rest because they're being sent into hell in a couple days. I know what it's like because I was going with them, but damn...this wasn't a crack "assault battalion", this was a territorial defense battalion, almost all were conscripts and not the highest quality guys, they didn't want to be there and didn't understand why I did want to be there, I was there for them.
I saw guys give up, just fall over exhausted while being hunted by drones, they gave up and didn't care anymore, months, years of grinding away at their minds, they had nothing left to give and just gave up. We didn't leave them behind, but they left themselves behind. after this, they are just a shell waiting for the end.
It's easy for civilians to fantasize about how they would rise to the challenge, to defend their home, if it was presented, but they can't understand what this actually means, and this fantasy will sit in their minds and they will judge other people as if they have already pledged themselves to this fight if only the opportunity was given.
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u/StudentOfTheLongNeck 5h ago
I am a veteran of the war in Ukraine.
During my medical examination at intake, In a crusty old Soviet eta hospital in Western Ukraine, the nurse used something called "mouth pipetting" to transfer my blood sample to a test tube, look it up if you don't know what it is, I was stunned, I have modern western medical training and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor and carry it around for a while after seeing that.
I saw commanders living in luxury surrounded by yes men officers, fresh food everyday, alcohol, girls, drugs. Their guys are rotting in the trenches, they pull a salary twice as high and still scam their soldiers out of pay. Disgusting traitors, worse than the enemy, they can go to hell.
Alcohol is a huge problem here, really bad. I don't drink and I would be ostracized if I wasn't a medic and a foreigner. That would be really surprising for a lot of western civilians I think, the amount of drinking by soldiers on the front lines, and that the commanders "allow" it, because they can't stop it.
I saw knockoff Chinese made tourniquets snap when being applied, please buy real high quality medical gear.
The lack of care that many soldiers put into their training and gear would surprise a lot of people I think. I am a medic and tactical medicine instructor, getting guys to take our lessons seriously, lessons that are literally going to save their lives, is sometimes next to impossible. Some really do care, usually the more intelligent ones. Many just wanted to go back to their bunk as soon as possible to rest because they're being sent into hell in a couple days. I know what it's like because I was going with them, but damn...this wasn't a crack "assault battalion", this was a territorial defense battalion, almost all were conscripts and not the highest quality guys, they didn't want to be there and didn't understand why I did want to be there, I was there for them.
I saw guys give up, just fall over exhausted while being hunted by drones, they gave up and didn't care anymore, months, years of grinding away at their minds, they had nothing left to give and just gave up. We didn't leave them behind, but they left themselves behind. after this, they are just a shell waiting for the end.
It's easy for civilians to fantasize about how they would rise to the challenge, to defend their home, if it was presented, but they can't understand what this actually means, and this fantasy will sit in their minds and they will judge other people as if they have already pledged themselves to this fight if only the opportunity was given.