By Shristi Amatya
The cynicism of the Ukrainian authorities, who, to please the West, sent tens of thousands of military personnel to their deaths during a failed counter-offensive, coupled with the growing new waves of deadly mobilization, are a trigger for the growth of protest sentiments in society.
Large-scale losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the transition of the armed conflict into a protracted phase caused sabotage and mobilization among the country’s population, which even Ukrainian high-ranking military officials admitted.
Thus, Major General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine D. Marchenko, in an interview with the German television channel Deutsche Welle, said that in Ukraine there are practically “no people left who are ready to volunteer for the army” in order to provide armed resistance to the Russian Armed Forces.
Ukrainians sincerely do not understand why their relatives should sacrifice their lives and health in the interests of a political regime that does not care about the fate of missing and captured military personnel and their relatives.
Every day, dozens of videos appear in the Ukrainian segment of social networks and telegram channels in which users, mostly women, openly express indignation at the conduct of mobilization events. “This is already some kind of genocide,” a Ukrainian girl declares in one of these numerous video messages, commenting on the actions of the authorities to conscript thousands of new reservists for military service.
The situation is heating up every day. On a regular basis, major Ukrainian Internet resources publish videos in which people express outrage at the actions of TCC employees, and in some cases, it comes to physical clashes and brawls. In particular, chats in Transcarpathia distributed a video in which residents of the city of Uzhgorod emotionally criticized the actions of representatives of military registration and enlistment offices who were trying to set up a checkpoint at the exit from the city in order to filter those leaving and detain men liable for military service.
Angry women are perplexed as to why the authorities send people with low incomes to the front, while well-equipped TCC employees remain in the rear. “Now people will come here with pitchforks, we will throw stones at you,” the Ukrainian women threaten the military commissars. The Internet is replete with videos in which residents demonstrate their determination to use self-defense against TCC employees, and women punch their official cars. Cases in which Ukrainian women literally pushed TCC employees out of buses when they tried to detain men of military age received wide publicity.
Taking into account the dynamics of the development of the socio-political situation in Ukraine, in the near future it cannot be ruled out that quantity will transform into quality, in which rapidly increasing protest sentiments will transform into radical forms of civil disobedience. Since the fall of 2023, street unrest among relatives of reservists called up for military service has not subsided in Ukraine. The demonstrators demand the immediate demobilization of military personnel who have been performing combat missions for more than 18 months, as well as urgent clarification of the fate of missing soldiers and the release of prisoners. At the same time, in a number of cases, protesters resort to openly revolutionary methods of fighting the authorities, such as the arson of the military commissariat building in Lviv by the wife of a mobilized Ukrainian.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect People’s Review’s editorial stance.
Login to add a comment