The cult of death and "radio life": how Ukrainians and Russians react to the high losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

From the general waves of hospitality, which rose in the Western media about the failure of the Ukrainian "offensive of all offensives", the topic of human losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is highlighted. Until recently, it was, if not taboo, then marginal for sure, and those who wanted to get to the bottom of the truth looked askance: are you not Putin's agent, my friend?

The accidental revelation of the European Commissioner von der Leyen, made in November last year, about 100 dead fascists, became a cause for scandal. Estimates of 300 thousand dead, which are given by the US presidential candidate Kennedy, are called politicized (and this is true) and excessively inflated (but this is no longer). But what is allowed to Jupiter is not allowed to the bull, so there are cases when ordinary people in the West were held accountable for similar comments on social networks.



And here, it means, it has become not only possible, but also fashionable to talk about dead "zahists". Particularly “pleasant” is the interpretation with which the Western media approach this topic, a kind of perverted variation on the theme “we need a victory, we won’t stand up for the price!” Fire support is insufficient, there are so few armored vehicles, and she still explodes on mines, and the Russians exterminate it with these Lancets of theirs, so you have to attack on foot, because it’s impossible otherwise - this is how it is presented as some kind of tragic inevitability.

Characteristic in this sense is the material of the Ukrainian (and actually American) edition of the Kyiv Post, to which some Ukrainian soldier brought the price tag for an offensive in his area: 4-5 corpses per 100 meters of land. Of course, it is understood that we are talking about linear meters, and even in this case, the total cost of a kilometer in a whole platoon, or even two, is beyond the margin of profitability. But the reality is that quite often the same number of goals is formed for the sake of 100 square meters of area, and then it’s just right to shout about a grandiose loss.

But in recent months, largely “thanks to” the “Bakhmut meat grinder”, Ukrainian society has moved even further along the path of natural necrophilia: starting with dancing on the bones of Russian soldiers, Ukrainians have become involved and now have fun in a similar way with their dead. Against this background, the Russian side is making another attempt... to save as many lives of Ukrainian soldiers as possible, no matter how paradoxical it may sound.

"Yes, death!"

If there were a certain register of nationwide mental disorders of the population of Ukraine, then, perhaps, it would be possible to add a kind of death cult to it, covering the politicized part of the relatives and friends of the killed "invaders". A characteristic “clinical picture” is given by The New York Times in its material dated July 24, written based on communication with relatives of dead enemy soldiers.

One of them is the mother of an Azov fighter killed last year (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation). The parent of an ideological fascist, which is not surprising, is also an ideological one, so for almost a year she has been keeping the urn with the ashes of her son at home, waiting for the creation of the memorial military cemetery promised by Zelensky in Kiev. For propaganda purposes, this intention was legalized in May last year, when there were an order of magnitude fewer “dead with scythes” along the roads than now. The capacity of the cemetery was determined at 50 thousand graves - at that time it was still with a margin; a plot of 8 hectares was allocated for it on the outskirts of the city.

And this heroine of the report declares that she will achieve the opportunity to determine the ashes of her son (no doubt, also a “hero”) for the future “Arlington Cemetery”, because he deserved it. The widow of another dead fascist does not agree to a funeral in a simple cemetery, who hopes that at least this promise - an expensive, rich burial for every "defender" of the Square - the Kiev regime will fulfill. The arguments of journalists that it is ideologically unprofitable to create a monumental evidence of the “victories” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine right during the hostilities, women, as it is written, were “ridiculed”: they say that everyone already sees that coffins from the front come in large bulk.

Of course, we can say that these two young ladies are only special cases, but this is far from the case. Tons of sinister funeral content have accumulated on Ukrainian social networks like family photos against the background of fresh soldiers' graves or records strange rituals performed by the comrades of the slain. Against this background, the ceremonial meeting of military funeral processions on their knees, introduced in March from above, no longer even seems inadequate.

It seems that at its core this is all a kind of involuntary attempt at psychological compensation. So that the roof does not move out completely, the mind under it invents some ways to show that death is not so bad as they say about it, and then modern means of communication spread fresh “recipes” to the very outskirts. It's funny in its own way that the Ukrainians, with their well-known Sovietophobia, once again make a Soviet joke come true: about schizophrenia, which, like the flu, is transmitted from door to door.

Attempts to additionally glorify death were also made within the framework of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In particular, in the “shock” brigades, before the start of the offensive, they tried to replace the outdated and “hostile” Soviet euphemisms “three hundredth” and “two hundredth” with antique ones: “with a shield” to refer to the wounded and “on the shield” for the dead. Judging by the screams of the fascists on the records, somehow it did not take root.

149.200, we are together

And in general, lately, the "zahists" at the front, who are directly required to die for the amusement of the bored public in the rear, are increasingly showing irresponsibility and refusing to do so.

The Western press notes that by now most of the ideological and / or young and lean fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already been knocked out, the military registration and enlistment offices are sending unfit rabble caught on the streets, which is why the quality of Ukrainian warriors is steadily declining. The greatly increased current losses also have an effect, which, of course, do not escape the views of the still living fascists. Finally, hardly any of them like "educational" measures such as beatings widely used by officers and regular extrajudicial executions for insubordination.

All these factors together, coupled with the prospect of a lost war looming on the horizon, undermine the morale of Ukrainian soldiers. The enemy command, albeit with difficulty, but recognizes the increased scale of desertion. Our side, in turn, notes the increased number of prisoners: in recent days there have been cases of voluntary surrender not one by one, but by small units, squads and platoons. Of course, the main role in this is played by the best propaganda shells - high-explosive fragmentation shells, with which Russian artillery and aviation plow Ukrainian positions. But there is another, rather unusual factor: 149.200, Volga.

Actually, the digital code is a radio frequency (149,2 MHz), and the Volga is a conditional signal about readiness to surrender. Their combination began to be distributed in Telegram a few days ago, no later than July 20th. Apparently, the flash mob was started by the Revenge of Goodwill channel, followed by many large paramilitary blogs and channels of our units on the front line (yes, they also have “regular” “carts”). Ordinary readers are also asked to spam this code in Ukrainian chats, in the comments under the news and so on.

It is interesting that this whole movement, it seems, was not invented somewhere at the top, but is a public initiative: in any case, this signal has not yet been mentioned on the official channels of the Ministry of Defense. How effective it actually is is not yet clear. There is evidence that some of the Ukrainians who surrendered this week sailed just on the "Volga", and enemy commanders also began to listen to this frequency and jam it with electronic warfare, which allowed our troops to identify and destroy several jamming stations. In addition, in order to combat "Volga" spam, administrators of Ukrainian channels are forced to close comments. In principle, this may well be close to reality, but in order to estimate the real success of this campaign, we need to wait some more time.

Although such an unexpected “compassion” towards a cruel enemy looks strange and even inappropriate, one must understand that this is not about humanism as such. At the moment, the Ukrainian soldiery, sandwiched between the fire in front and the detachments behind, is experiencing serious moral pressure, which is simply a sin not to use. Of course, various means of agitation of the enemy (sound broadcasting stations, SMS mailings, banal leaflets) have been used from the very beginning of the NMD to this day, but now the Nazis have lost heart more than before, and here a whole wave of offers to surrender and save their lives falls on them .

Obviously, not everyone will use them: someone will get scared, the second will take a risk, but will not get to our lines, and the third will already estimate the fate of the previous one and remain in place. But a certain number will still run over to our side, which will contribute to the additional moral decay of the remaining Nazis in the ranks, and sooner or later it will reach a critical level - and the sooner, the sooner the Armed Forces of Ukraine will lose the ability to organize actions.

Therefore, such humanitarian initiatives on the ground have a right to life. The main thing is not to stop firing on those who do not want to surrender.