A gunbattle erupted between servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on a military base in Kherson region, Southern Ukraine.
Photo: Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Press Service
Soldiers of the Ukrainian Army started a gunfight on a military base, located in Kherson region, Southern Ukraine, the FAN news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.
According to sources from Golopristanskiy district, where the military base of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is situated, the conflict between the servicemen took place on December 7. As a result of the exchange of gunfire, three Ukrainian soldiers were hospitalized. Doctors pointed out that two of them are in serious condition.
According to some reports, the shootout was started at an ammunition depot of the military base by guardsmen. During the opening of the fire, the third Ukrainian soldier, who did not take part in the conflict, was also wounded.
Earlier, an official representative of the People’s Militia of the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), Andrey Marochko, told that a Ukrainian soldier of the 14th separate motorized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces sent a bullet through his leg in order not to serve in the ATO zone (the Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone) in Donbass. According to Marochko, the Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces tries to hide this incident.
This happens on pretty much daily basis, why this particular case is so important to deserve entire article?
Does it? If that is true, then that deserves an article. I knew the UAF was in poor shape, but is it really so bad that it’s personnel regularly shoot at one another?
Many other nations which have conscription (which is a very flawed system in itself, I always advocate for professional military or even private military) atleast dont give 18 year olds just out of school live ammunition to fire at eachother, Violence in schools in ukraine amongst students themselves are common, and then in a short space of time they’re transferred to the army and given guns, you think they’ll change that fast? Dedovschina is widespread in ukrainian army, eventually the victim is at a breaking point and turns his rifle against ones which bully him. Alternatively there are cases of just young men unwilling to go to front or obey commands of higher rank officers, so they simply passively resist.
Well, conscription has it’s pros and cons. I’m a on the anti-authoritarian side of things, so I certainly understand your reservations about a system that forces people into the military. On the other hand, conscription tends to bring a better overall class of people into the military than would join voluntarily, and some of them find they like it and stay. The Bundswehr has been lamenting that the larger portion of it’s officers and a high proportion of it’s NCOs came in as conscripts, before they abolished it, rather than joining as volunteers. Now, they are having a really hard time finding qualified people, and are having to spend a lot of money on advertising and amenities. Granted, the situation is kind of extreme in Germany, with the military held in such low esteem by society, but even in the old days, the famous Graf von Schlieffen, for example, came in as a 1 year conscript, but discovered he liked it so much that he skipped university to become a professional officer. Also, if you are willing to offer decent refresher training, it offers a much larger force of trained troops than can be had voluntarily. But I think that really depends on how conscripts are treated. I felt pretty irritated by the degree of hazing I encountered in the US Marines, and I volunteered.
Anyway, you provided a good answer to my question. I was unaware of the youth violence problem in the Ukraine, for one. I also really hadn’t considered dedovschina. Mentioning that, it reminded me of how much caution the US Marines show about live ammo in training because of concerns of recruits shooting their instructors. The Marines are fairly famous for their hazing, though it’s rather soft compared to what I’ve heard of going on in former-Soviet militaries. Because of that, the Drill Instructors who do most of that hazing aren’t allowed to conduct live fire marksmanship training, or even be present while their platoon is undergoing such. Instead, Marines who recently graduated and agreed to stay on for a few cycles as instructors come and teach this, avoiding any yelling or harassment, being very calm and professional in their teaching demeanour. All the ammo is carefully accounted for to make sure none of the recruits keep any, and even then, the DIs start to be much friendlier in the final phase of training, just to smooth over any resentment from their previous behaviour. And that is with volunteers who expect at least some of the behaviour they encounter. In that light, what you say makes great sense.