Ukraine War Upd. EXTRA: Budanov, Sitting Soldiers, Morality, & Training for Bakhmut
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Table of Contents 📖
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"At the end of the day if you want to hold yourself up to be the moral on the moral high ground here compared to Russia, don't stoop to those levels"
Hello Team!
Jonathan introduces the video as an extra update providing additional insights and understanding of the war in Ukraine.
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Controversial Wall Street Journal article
- The article reports on Ukrainian mobilised troops being sent to defend Bakhmut with little training and poor equipment
- 11 out of a group of 16 draftees were killed or captured in 36 hours of brutal combat
- Ukraine has been using mobilised soldiers and territorial defense units in Bakhmut to preserve brigades trained and equipped by the West for an anticipated offensive
- The success of Ukraine's Bakhmut strategy will depend on the results of the wider offensive
- Jonathan questions if the Wall Street Journal is trying to build a particular narrative but acknowledges these concerning reports should not be ignored
Captured soldier's experience
- One of the captured soldiers, Puhasi, was released in a prisoner swap after 2 months in Russian captivity
- He believes his very short military service saved him from execution by his Russian captors
- This suggests Russia is executing Ukrainian POWs rather than housing and feeding them
- Ukraine likely treats Russian POWs better, both morally and to avoid damaging PR that could impact Western support
Corrupt Russian officers allowing soldiers to avoid front lines
- Some mobilised Russian soldiers are allegedly paying officers half their salary to stay at home and avoid fighting
- A pro-war Russian activist has denounced several such "sitting soldiers" to the military police
- Jonathan jokes he would do the same to fleece Russian central funds and avoid the immoral war
Ukrainian soldiers begin training on Abrams tanks
- The first group of 400 Ukrainian soldiers has started 10-12 weeks of training on Abrams tanks provided by the US
- This raises questions about if the counteroffensive will be delayed to wait for this equipment and personnel to be ready
- Ideally, this training program will provide a constant stream of tanks and crews to replenish losses and create new units on an ongoing basis, not just a one-time boost
Profile of Ukrainian intelligence chief Budanov
- Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence, has a storied past including:
- Leading an operation to destroy Russian helicopters in occupied Crimea in 2016
- Wiping out a Russian special forces unit and killing their decorated commander in a 2-minute action
- Being wounded 3 times and still having shrapnel near his heart
- Personally participating in liberating villages and having to be stopped from joining the mission to retake Snake Island
- Budanov thought Ukraine would fall in 2 weeks if they couldn't hold out at the start of the invasion
Moral philosophy and the war
In response to a viewer question about why the West doesn't abandon international law to more aggressively counter Russian war crimes and brutality, Jonathan gives an overview of moral philosophy:
- Moral consequentialism judges actions by their outcomes, but has issues around predicting and evaluating consequences
- Moral value systems are human constructs, not objective truths, as evidenced by millennia of philosophical disagreement
- Psychology and emotion, not just reason, play a key role in moral intuitions as shown by the trolley problem
- Sacrificing soldiers to hold Bakhmut is arguably justified by positive consequences for the wider war
- Systematically committing war crimes would be a race to the bottom, forfeit the moral high ground, and risk losing critical Western support
- Ultimately, stooping to Russia's level would undermine the very rules-based international order Ukraine is fighting for
Wrap up
Jonathan thanks viewers for their support, appreciates an insightful audience comment on morality and the war, and signs off until the next video.
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