Why Ukrainians Don't Want to Fight for Ukraine? Part 2

I blame Ukrainian ignorant people and corrupt elites of the country for the fact that Ukraine has been getting weaker and weaker since its independence. Ukraine has lost its main war to its elites long before the full-scale war with Russia and even before the surrender of Crimea to the Russians in 2014.

Ukrainian elites plundered and morally corrupted the country instead of building a new strong state, while the people allowed them to do that during all 30+ years of independence. So, the Ukrainians themselves (not only Russians) did everything possible for degradation of Ukraine by their attitude to each other and to their country. The Russians just had their own interest in Ukraine and took advantage of its weakness. They would never attack the strong.

Independent Ukraine is riddled with corruption from its birth.

Wikipedia states:
“After declaring independence from the Soviet, Ukraine faced a series of politicians from different sides of the political spectrum, as well as criminal bosses and oligarchs, who used the corruption of police, political parties, and industry to gain power.”
It’s true, I watched all that.

Ukraine's presidents change, but the schemes to plunder the country keep working. Billions of dollars are being withdrawn from state-owned enterprises and political cover-up is always present as common element everywhere.
Government officials abuse their power, steal from the country even in times of war, circumvent existing laws and rules, write ambiguous new ones which contradict the old ambiguous laws... An eloquent example: the Constitution of independent Ukraine has passed only in 1996 (5 years after the declaration of independence!) and then it was repealed/adopted several times since then. Now it is even hard to say which variant of Constitution actually works in Ukraine.

The people see all that, but they keep giving bribes to solve their artificially created by the government problems, because without that nothing will happen. All laws in the country are unclear, ambiguous, contradictory and still just complicate the life of the population. The impression is that all the laws are made for extorting money from the Ukrainians, i.e. corruption. Ukrainian state officials simply do not know how to live in another way, so it is always funny to hear them condemning corruption.

All that was very well understood and promoted by Mr. Putin. And thus he reasonably expected to conquer Ukraine very quickly. This did not work because he did not take into account the Ukrainian people since he always dealt just with corrupt Ukrainian politicians. This was for sure his main mistake. Mr. Putin couldn’t make a deal with Ukrainian elites because Ukrainian patriots from the army and ordinary people suddenly rose up to fight and did not give their elites the opportunity to surrender Ukraine to Mr. Putin. The West thought for a while, but then began to help with weapons, military equipment and money. In addition, Russia is even more corrupt country than Ukraine, and the Russian army was greatly plundered by the Russians also.
It turns out that now Russia and Ukraine are proving to each other on the battlefield whose corruption is “better.”

I think that now it’s a matter of life and death for Ukraine: either it overcomes its corruption (which, in my opinion, is impossible), mobilize everyone/everything and then wins the war with the help of the West aid or it returns to the status of a Russian province, as it was before 1991.
A third is not given.

“Disconnected” Ukrainians who are now called “the draft dodgers”.

There have always been a number of people in Ukraine (like me) who did not follow any party. They did not go to rallies or argue with others on political topics because they just did not want to squabble (and sometimes fight) fruitlessly with their fellow citizens. Also they had to see that Ukrainian thieves were no better than Ukrainian bandits and that the people could not influence their elites at all.
Out of hopelessness, these people retreated into themselves and their own affairs, trying not to notice the deepening chaos, and thus they had “disconnected” from Ukraine. Many of them did that mentally like me at first (“I don’t want to hear anything about politics”) and relatively few physically, like me later - by leaving Ukraine forever to be out of the Ukrainian mess.
It was clear that nothing good would happen in Ukraine. Thus, many citizens of Ukraine ceased to be Ukrainians (like me), and some (the Crimeans, for example) never became ones.

Over time, this “disconnected” part of the Ukrainians grew quantitatively in Ukraine and abroad. The elites of Ukraine were busy with their political struggle for money and did not pay attention to that. Only in 2022 this group of people became needed to participate in the war against Russia.

The government calls the “disconnected” citizens who remained in Ukraine the “draft dodgers” and try to send them to the front line by any means. Yet the Ukrainian elites decided to forcibly return Ukrainian emigrants to the country because of the shortage of soldiers. The mobilization law was enacted for this purpose. Elites actually can do nothing without the people - neither work, nor fight, and not even make coordinated decisions like they do in many democratic countries recent times.


The minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, I. Klimenko says of “hundreds of thousands of draft dodgers” in Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities are now presenting them as almost enemies of Ukraine and are trying to sow hatred among other Ukrainians towards this group which will only lead to greater division of the nation.

From time to time, information emerges that men are simply caught on the streets in Ukraine and forcibly sent to the front. Here is video filmed in Odessa on April 30, 2024, which accidentally came to me through third parties from the author of the filming.



In this video, two men in camouflage uniforms are pushing an ordinary citizen into a bus on the street of Odessa, and he is shouting “Help, I have a child at home alone!” So, you can see how the democratic authorities of Ukraine really recruit the men into the army.
How often is this? The Washington Post wrote in March 2024 that in some villages “… people are being caught like dogs on the street” and “… the whole village was taken this way,” referring to some locals.

President Zelensky is formally against such methods. That's right, this does not solve the problem of the shortage of manpower, but, on the contrary, causes indignation and anger among the people. In addition, soldiers who do not want to fight should be a big problem for the army. Most likely, they will scatter in the first battle, shoot the commander in the back and/or surrender.
This is a purely Ukrainian style - the government first creates a problem by its stupid or illegal decisions, and then heroically solves it against the will of its citizens and to the detriment of the country.

Ukrainian sources say that the law on mobilization does not give any legal authority to military registration and enlistment offices, which are solely responsible for all mobilization in the country, so they work by such methods. Ukraine still does not have a unified register of persons liable for military service, there is a complete mess in this matter and it naturally leads to mass corruption. Ukrainian citizens as well as their elite pay money to military commissioners, doctors, border guards, etc., for not participating in military operations.

So, why do Ukrainians avoid fulfilling their obligation?

Because they don't feel this obligation despite the article 65 of the Constitution of Ukraine which states: “Defence of the Motherland, of the independence and territorial indivisibility of Ukraine…. are the duties of citizens of Ukraine.”
On the contrary, I think that many Ukrainians believe (like me) that they survived on their own, and Ukraine only prevented them from normal living in every possible way (as it does now by passing the current law on mobilization).

Many Ukrainians are ready to die (and have already died) for Ukraine, but in fact they have to fight not for Ukraine, but for the prosperity of Ukrainian elites, which are knee-deep in corruption and cannot stop stealing something from its fellow citizens even during the war. No wonder if there will be few people willing to go to war in Ukraine and, most likely, none among the emigrants.

If you don’t feel your obligation, you don’t have it.

I have noticed long ago that people always are supposed to do something for their spouses (especially exes), children, parents, friends, tax authorities, priests, politicians, countries... No. You should only do something for someone if you feel inside that you have to and not just for being a good husband/brother/son/ friend/ Christian/citizen, etc.
In this case, do what you think is necessary, but then observe your attitude towards this event in time. If you never regret about what you did, then you really fulfilled your obligation and your conscience was clear. If you regret, it means that you have become a victim of ordinary propaganda. The fact is that it is very beneficial for others to impose an obligation on you, so listen just to yourself.

In conversations with other people about relationships, I asked sometimes: “The son does not take care of his old sick mother. Is it good or bad?" And 90% of people answered “bad” without even specifying the details. Relationships are always concrete, that’s why I gave them the example from my life.
My mother-in-law was picked up at the age of 3 at a train station in Kyiv in 1943 or 1944 by a rural woman who raised her as her own daughter. When my mother-in-law was about 25 years old, the real mother appeared from nowhere with some documents in her hands and claimed “give me my child back.” My mother-in-law answered “Madam, I don’t know you” and kept living in her family, calling the woman who raised her «mom».

The people often leave for other countries not only for a good life there, but also to escape the bad life in their homeland. The US Declaration of Independence calls that a “pursuit of happiness”. Those countries which cannot create normal living conditions for their citizens are losing them little by little, like a human body loses its blood drop by drop and thus weakens. This is actively happening now in many countries of Central and South America, for example.

This happened in Ukraine, too. People were constantly leaving the country because of the growing hatred, lies and hopelessness since 1992-93. The war with Russia sharply increased the number of emigrants and, oddly enough, this is good for Ukraine. And yet, it couldn't be any other way. Ukrainian elites have created too many problems for their people.

Ukraine is now freeing itself from non-Ukrainians, from the people with a non-Ukrainian mentality (like me), who feel bad in Ukraine both in peace- and wartime. Let real Ukrainians remain in Ukraine, those who fight for it, are proud of it, believe in its bright future and will create it no matter what. Maybe they will succeed and I sincerely wish this to them, although I myself do not believe it is feasible. And I personally would not fight for the Ukrainian thievish elites, they do not deserve such an attitude. That’s why I don’t have to live in Ukraine with my mentality. The Ukrainians don’t understand me, and I don’t understand them. Therefore, I “disconnected” long ago and have been having excellent harmonious relationships with Ukraine for many years.

In the end, everyone gets the place in life that they deserve.
Look at your life and you will see that now you are in your current place just because you did everything right and wrong for that. Every person (and country) has a unique path in life and your path has brought you to where you are now. You cannot have another place in the world, and if you don’t like it, it means that you saw, thought, spoke and acted incorrectly. That’s why you did not come to where you wanted and belonged to.

Look at the history of Ukraine over the past 30 years which I described above and at the current state of Ukraine, and you will see that it could not be otherwise.

The Ukrainians seem to be beginning to understand who their main enemy is, but it may be too late.

On April, 4, the sociological research agency “Rating” has published an interesting survey. When asked to name the biggest threats to Ukraine's national development, 51% of respondents specified corruption in government and 46% mentioned Russian military aggression.
Wow! I did not expect such an insight.

Since 2014 and until now many Ukrainian media shout that the main enemy of Ukraine is in Kremlin, thus diverting public attention from the problem of internal enemies of Ukraine and the total corruption of the elites. It is a half-truth which is very similar to the truth, so many Ukrainians succumbed to this propaganda and completely forgot the good Ukrainian proverb «Перше лихо на землi – це дурна голова» («First trouble on earth is a bad head»). This saying is the ultimate truth for the entire human race. All troubles of any person come from within - from a bad head. Then the bad head of that person chooses the second trouble on earth - a bad spouse, and after they both find the third one - they settle next to a bad neighbor. Any of the troubles can finish the poor creature off, but everything starts from the bad head.

People and countries are created in a similar way (although this is not immediately noticeable), so parallels can be drawn. In Ukraine, the bad head is ignorant and short-sighted Ukrainian people who constantly choose a bad spouse (thief and traitor) - the Ukrainian elite, while residing next to a bad, aggressive and envious neighbor - Russia.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were in the same conditions as Ukraine was at the time of collapse of the USSR in 1991. So, where are they now? In the EU and under the NATO umbrella.
The people of these countries elected wise and decent representatives into the government which work for the benefit of the whole nation and not just for their own pocket. The bad neighbor of these countries is also Russia. It threatens them, clicks with its teeth, but cannot bite, at least so far. And Ukraine has been at war more or less for 10 years now.
This is the difference between «good» and “bad” head.

Ukrainians are slowly coming to understanding who their main enemy is. This is important, because if you don’t see your enemy, you can’t fight him. For the first time in many years, the Ukrainians put the internal problem of elite corruption above the external and very dangerous one, the war with Russia. This is an unprecedented leap of the mass consciousness of the nation. However, it’s just the first step. Corruption in government is also a consequence, so the next question should be “consequence of what?” What is the cause of corruption in government? And when the answer becomes clear, the next questions and their answers become available until the last ones - “what is the cause of all the troubles of Ukraine?” and “what to do now?» - occur.

In theory, the Ukrainians could come to correct understanding of all that, but they had to see and do something before. And yet they need to put their understanding into practice which is a separate story. Actually, war could speed up the whole process, but the evolution of consciousness of a nation takes long. Now it seems there is no time for all that. And the Russians launched an active offensive in northeastern Ukraine near Kharkiv (2nd largest city) and Ukraine’s forces are stretched thin and have minimal reserves to draw on...

All Ukrainian people are right in their own way. And Ukrainian elites have for too long spit into the well from which they were going to drink themselves.

If you don’t feel your obligation, you don’t have it. If you do, go ahead and fulfill it. It’s as simple as that. And nobody can say that you are wrong.

I want to say to everyone who left Ukraine by hook or by crook: you did everything right. You disconnected from Ukraine when you realized that you could no longer live there anymore. It means that you do not belong there even if you have Ukrainian last name. Your mentality is different.

I want to say also to everyone who remains in Ukraine because they cannot or do not want to leave: you are doing everything right, too. You are either not ready to leave yet, or Ukraine is your country, you are proud of it and want to prove to everyone that it is good. It means that you do belong there even if you don’t have Ukrainian last name. You are Ukrainian by your mentality.


Which group of Ukrainians is ultimately bigger?
Those, who sincerely feel their obligation and will defend what they consider to be their Ukraine no matter what, or those who sincerely feel they owe nothing to their homeland?
I do not know. Time will show.

The Ukrainians (volunteers and military, but not the elites of the country) have already surprised me, Mr. Putin and the whole world much by starting resistance to the Russians on February 24, 2022. I also want Russia to be defeated which would be just fair, but I’m trying to be realistic about that. Fighting the Russians with such a heavy ballast on the back as the Ukrainian corrupt state apparatus is, in my opinion, impossible. And nobody wants to die for the Ukrainian elites. And yet Ukrainian volunteers and patriots-military somehow manage to carry on these two wars - with their treacherous elites at the rear and with Russia at the front - for almost 2.5 years.

In launching a full-scale war against Ukraine, Mr. Putin has made a mistake for the 3rd time, but if many Ukrainians refuse to fight, Ukraine may return to the Russian Empire.
The moment of truth is approaching.


P.S. The only request I have to those who have left Ukraine. Please, do not wave the Ukrainian flag somewhere in Düsseldorf, Kraków or Valencia. This is a hypocrisy. The lover must share the fate of the beloved. You have disconnected from Ukraine forever. Now all the victories and defeats of the Ukrainians belong only to them.
You (like me) have nothing to do with that anymore.
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Update on May 24, 2024:
The brutal war is forcing the Ukrainian government to move in the right direction after all. They made the right decision: the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has decided to reduce the staffing levels of structural subdivisions and military administration bodies by 60 percent. They say, that after the optimization, some military personnel will be sent to combat units.
Let's see if the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to put its decision into practice.