Sign into an existing account

RT: Do you and your fellow fighters think about the war and the enemy differently now that you’ve spent considerable time at the front?

Ural: No, not in a major way. In general, Russian soldiers are divided into two “camps” regarding their attitude towards the enemy: the people who believe they are fighting fascism and treat Ukrainians as fascists and those who believe that this is a war against a fraternal nation – a nation that has been brainwashed by Western governments. For the latter group, this is a civil war.

Personally, I share the second point of view. It’s hard to argue here, because we basically have the same guys over on the other side, especially now that the number of Ukrainian conscripts has significantly increased. These are the same people who speak Russian and have more or less the same mentality that we do.

We are mostly fighting against ourselves. Except that the other side is much more ideologically brainwashed. Moreover, this brainwashing is so severe that people do not understand what they are doing.

He talks about ideolocical brainwashing. Covid was a huge eye-opener for me on how a large part of the population can be programmed to turn on their countrymen and their respect for freedom.