When I read or listen to the accounts of Russians who volunteered to go fight in Ukraine, the word they use most often is “a loan.” They aren’t motivated by hatred of Ukrainians or by propaganda as much as by the need to repay a loan that they have taken out or want to take out.
Of course, the instinctive dislike of Ukrainians and the justifications provided by propaganda help but they are not the central motivating factor for these volunteers.
It’s so sad that these idiots would go kill people simply because they want to buy some crap they can’t afford.
Clarissa's Blog 
So they were essentially temporary mercenaries, without at least the military experience that professional mercenaries have?
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Of course, there were also regular Russian troops fighting on the territory of Ukraine. Plus, the Russian special forces. Plus, the Chechens.
But there were also quite a lot of these unprofessional mercenaries. The very first ones to come to fight in Ukraine were the Russian neo-Nazis. Those were the first to be killed because they have zero military expertise and are not fit. Then, Russians were recruiting drug addicts and homeless people to go fight in Ukraine. Obviously, they were all killed almost immediately. This was a sort of a social cleansing thing for Russia.
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Russia is not unique in having many people (mostly young men, I would guess) who are too easily motivated to hurry off to war for any reason or for no reason at all.
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Carissa, can you bring us up to date about what’s going on militarily right now in the Ukraine vis-a-vis the Russians? Since all the news attention is currently on Syria, it’s very hard to find accurate English-language news articles about the situation.
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Thank you for asking. It’s complicated because the situation is changing every day. The terrorists in Donbass were very demoralized after Putin abandoned them and went to fight in Syria. They haven’t been getting their salaries from Russia for two months and started shooting each other in desperation.
BUT! In the last several days, they perked up and started getting activated again. They’re trying to get some territory back from the Ukrainian army. Yesterday especially the hostilities were quite noticeable.
I hope this doesn’t mean Putin is planning to start a new wave of fighting in Ukraine now that it has become obvious that no easy victory awaits him in Syria.
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