For what it’s worth, the American military’s Code of Conduct, in articles 2 and 3, says
“I will never surrender of my own free will. If in command, I will never surrender the members of my command while they still have the means to resist. … If I am captured I will continue to resist by all means available. I will make every effort to escape and aid others to escape. I will accept neither parole nor special favors from the enemy.”
So the Russian prohibition on surrender is by no means unique. Only, perhaps, the severity of the penalty.
No need to even pretend this is a fair election, so let’s play the Russian National anthem before this vote on whether we want to join Russia (video in the linked Tweet).
A general observation and question: is it just me or do the Ukrainians give the appearance of being able to conduct river crossings with relative ease where the Russians - with vastly more combat engineering resources available - have frequently struggled to effect crossings. I’m thinking back on the attempted river crossing in May where they >attempted a river crossing near Bilohorivka
and ended up losing an entire battalion.
My recollection is that in the second Iraq war, the US and allies were generally greeted with happiness (if not the rose petals that were promised). I thought it was the completely unplanned post-liberation occupation that ended up turning the masses against us.
Even if it’s manufactured, you still need something resembling a valid casus belli
To an extent, they were high on their own supply - there was some belief that the local populace really did want to be annexed or at least rid of their current leadership and would welcome a liberating force. The US made the same mistake in Iraq. They decided to listen uncritically to people telling them what they wanted to hear
All this nonsense about crypto-Nazis is, of course, stage dressing
