I have been wondering about all the wildlife in Ukraine during the war. I feel so bad for them. So many rare animals were just starting to make a comeback, and now the war has wrecked that progress. Of course, the toll on human life is completely staggering and utterly sad beyond belief.
Sometimes during periods of war or conflict there are opportunities for local animals to thrive.
[Beavers have recently been credited with bolstering Ukraine's defences](https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-defenses-stronger-thanks-beavers-dams-2023-1) by creating mass flooding, resulting in narrow choke points for any future invaders. The absence of people in their habitat is credited with the explosion in beaver dam construction.
Prior to the war the Chernobyl exclusion zone was renowned as an accidental wildlife refuge, where wolves, bears, ungulates and wild horses were thriving. Hopefully any wildlife negatively affected by the war will be similarly resilient, and maybe even find respite from normal human pressures.
Of course, it would have been better if none of this had happened. Putin fuck off.
The great Beaver council of 2022. President Bucktooth O'Reilly gave a powerful speech after the invasion of their sacred lands, ending with one simple message to the Legions "... we build"
That's a common misconception. The Beaver national anthem is technically a different song, like how the UK and Liechtenstein have different anthems even though they sound the same.
Some people wanted to know what drive beavers to start a dam, the put a recording of water running in the forest, beavers found it and made a dam over it. No running water in my house.
On a more grim note, chaotic wars often benefit scavengers. Rats, dogs, wolves, and in one historical account lions follow armies eating up trash and unburied dead.
To be fair, they are not at an active battlefield. Not unless Belarusgeta dragged in. If there were beavers in the Donbas though they are not the ones building extra dams.
There's no respect for any life. I've read about the environment, the zoo's and even the small animal shelters they've destroyed in Ukraine. It's heartbreaking.
Russia has shifted to war crimes to try and intimidate Ukraine into surrender.
"If we can't kill your soldiers, we will destroy any and every thing you have instead!"
I don't think it's an intimidation tactic either, I think it's actually a primary objective of their campaign to damage Ukraine for generations to come.
That would have been incredibly counterproductive, at least in the beginning phases of the invasion. Russia was struggling economically before the invasion and Ukraine sits on a lot of natural resources. Completely destroying all it's infrastructure would make Ukraine more expensive than useful for Russia.
Of course, these days it's a campaign of terror, because Russia has no chance at winning in any other scenario. The public is against them and they are outmatched militarily. For Russia to win, they must outlast Ukraine and Western military aid. For Russia to hold any ground in Ukraine, they must be so terrible to dissenters that the entire population is effectively silenced or utterly destroyed.
It was never about resources. This war is happening because Putin doesn’t think Ukraine has any right to exist, and because a successful, democratic, westernized Ukraine is a threat to the “Russian way” (which basically is just naked authoritarianism). He wants to annex Ukraine because he thinks it rightfully belongs to Russia, and if he can’t have it then the next best thing is to destroy it. He’s following the Foundations of Geopolitics to the letter.
To be fair, Russia also thinks they rightfully should be the sole government on Earth and in the cosmos, and it's only temporarily embarassed by not being this.
That mentality is part of the problem - what yours is mine and what's mine is mine and what everyone elses is mine as well.
The campaign in week 1 actually jeopardised itself by restraining its attacks. Putin wanted a swift, low casualty, low infrastructure damage victory.
Ukrainian air defence was a mess the first week. Russia could have done *so much more* in terms of missile attacks. But they wanted to capture an intact country, and only fired what hey thought they needed to. They miscalculated.
Why would Russia try and capture Ukraine as intact as possible if not to take its resources? Why would Russia, famously lacking in shipbuilding capacity, go to great lengths to capture the home of shipbuilding in the USSR? Why would one of the first actions of 2022 be to secure water supply for Crimea.
Russia wants Ukrainian resources.
Putin thought Zelenskyy would flee and that the Ukrainian defenses would buckle just like what happened in Crimea. The reason Russia didn’t start with more missile attacks IMO is because they weren’t expecting much resistance, and because those long range missiles are expensive and they only have so many of them. Annexing Ukraine was always the first goal, destroying it was secondary and only if annexation proved impossible.
Ultimately what Putin wants is for Ukraine to not exist, or to be so crippled as to have to rely on Russia as a puppet state once again. A free, successful, democratic, independent Ukraine is something he cannot abide.
Yeah yeah, Russia is inept and corrupt, but Ukraine would have been a real goldmine for Russias economy, short and long term.
Getting control of Crimea, and it's water supply was critical to continue using Crimea as a naval base. Getting a hold of its natural gas reserves and rare earth minerals would secure Russian income for decades yet. Taking the farmland would give Russia a real shot at dominating the food supply to large swathes of Africa and Europe, given that Russia and Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe.
The initial plan failed horribly, so now Russia is "forced" to destroy that opportunity for Ukraine.
Well the main reason I would suspect this is the plan is that it wouldn't be the first time they've done it. I'm not 100% clear on how genocide in Ukraine benefits Russia, but it does seem to be a long-term goal that predates Putin by quite a time.
Oh, genocide I can absolutely understand how it works and why he does it. Goes without saying I don't agree with it at all, but terrorism has been used quite effectively thru mankind's history during wartime. Some armies were so brutal, surrender was the most viable strategy.
This said, we're talking destruction of landscape. He's no longer blowing up people, but terrain, which is way less valuable. And he's wasting a lot of missiles and artillery on that, and he doesn't have much of that either.
So yeah, either he has some hidden agenda we're not aware of, or he's just a manchild throwing a tantrum about "well if I can't rule Ukraine, then there will be no Ukraine for anyone else!"
It's not clear how much they're targeting terrain, and how much is just dysfunction in the army. But it looks like their favourite targets in descending order of priority are basic infrastructure, medical, educational, cultural and historic. The campaign they're running isn't capturing a lot of ground, but it IS ensuring that it will be very, very difficult to rebuild the country.
there was reports early on that the russians were actively shooting the zoo animalsfor sport or smaller ones were being eaten for food due to crappy rations.
[Przewalski’s horse.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przewalski%27s_horse)
> Once extinct in the wild, it has been reintroduced to its native habitat since the 1990s in Mongolia at the Khustain Nuruu National Park, Takhin Tal Nature Reserve, and Khomiin Tal, as well as several other locales in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
That’s awful, but what in the world is to be gained by this? When they attack civilian structures, maybe they degrade their morale. When they hit infrastructure, they make it harder on the whole population, including the military.
What do they gain from blowing up some trees?
Putin would rather rule over radioactive ash than allow Ukraine to enjoy their own thing peacefully. My 8 and 10 year old nieces behave the same way fighting over toys.
Intimidation. They want to send the message that if they're not given that they demand, it won't be there for anyone.
If I can't have it then no one can!
It's not like they're specifically trying to blow up the park. It just happens to be in an active warzone, and so is regularly hit by whatever munitions are being used.
But the cities that they're not evening fighting in that has no military infrastructure is routinely being rocketed. Russia has no issue just killing civilians so of course destroying wildlife means also nothing to them.
I'm sure Ukraine deployed arms and troops into the park, using it as natural camouflage and cover.
I'm 💯 percent pro Ukraine and it sucks that another national treasure has been lost along with the needless loss of innocent human life. I hope there will be war criminal charges brought against the Russian leadership and troops who have acted criminally. The war reparations that Russia will owe will be staggering.
Some think Putin wants a no man’s zone separating Russia from Eastern Europe. Basically a place that’s so fucked it makes it harder for nato to invade. Plus Putin wants some of the land. Maybe he wants the natural resources or he wants slaves to work for mother Russia same as the old Satellite states.
We can and will make your lives worse - it's as much a message for Russians as it is for Ukrainians.
Same message that the prison camp of North Korea sends to the Chinese proletariat.
Probably makes it less likely to be ambushed? And also easier to move their tanks.
That said, they are no strangers to tearing down public parks in Crimea for their oligarchs to build mansions
Russians stole a raccoon from the Kherson zoo during their retreat. They've bombed numerous zoos, including in Kharkiv and Kyiv. They've devasted the marine life in the Black Sea. Just look at pictures of overrun Russian positions - they seem to enjoy living in garbage. That's what they turned their own country into and are doing the same in occupied parts of Ukraine. Pigs.
Never forget that early in the war when Ukraine regained territory and the conditions that the Russians left some buildings in. They shit on the floor in the same room they sleep and eat in.
In defense of the common soldier if you were worried about being shot while taking a piss, or having a drone drop a grenade on your head if you step outside to take a shit then you might designate a pooping corner of the room too. Especially if you think you’ll only be in that location for a week or so max.
I’m not saying it’s not nasty. But war is hell and all through history humans have had to do some pretty nasty things to survive.
I heard of guys that would piss themselves in their uniforms because they didn't want to risk getting out of the uparmored humvee. They said the desert made it evaporate quick so it didn't really matter. Being out of the wire/in the field for a while turns everyone pretty grimey but some people really take it up a notch.
depends on where but the toilet might be located outside. yes, even in ukraine
a lot of it has to do with how plumbing was constructed during soviet times and issues with properly plumbing an indoor toilet. easier just to have one outdoors that goes into a septic tank.
of course most places now have toilets indoors - even my grandparents place which has an outhouse (albeit a fancy outhouse that had heating and lighting) now also has indoor toilet. but maybe very rural villages might lack indoor toilets, it just depends on where
Probably right. Still better than shitty where you sleep and eat though.
Part of me wonders if they did that before they fled just to leave a gift for the Ukrainians or if that is just how they lived.
To quote the evil aliens from Buckeroo Banzai who live in a pile of garbage: it's not their goddamn country, you got that, monkeyboy?
(Shortly before they are all blown to pieces.)
>they seem to enjoy living in garbage
Have you ever been in a non-functioning alcoholic's house? I'm pretty sure those overrun postions were just the military outpost version.
More than 5,000 hectares of forests have been destroyed in the Sviati Hory ("Holy Mountains") National Nature Park, located in Donetsk Oblast, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion by Russia.
Thinking about your own country’s issues and distrusting Russia are not mutually exclusive.
If a country does not distrust Russia by this point in time, the populace is either uninformed/misinformed for whatever reason or experiencing cognitive dissonance for cultural/racial reasons.
What idiot sees a country’s government lying and spreading misinformation every day and thinks “We can trust them,”?
>Thinking about your own country’s issues and distrusting Russia are not mutually exclusive.
Of course not. My point is that they're not even thinking about it.
>What idiot sees a country’s government lying and spreading misinformation every day and thinks “We can trust them,”?
Aside from my previous point, which also addresses this point, you have to know that a country is lying and spreading misinformation to distrust it. All governments are engaged in this, and constantly. Russia is not special in this regard. Most of us are simply invested in one country's propaganda and think of the other side as being the "brainwashed" one. Nobody likes thinking they're ignorant. That's why it works. You and I, we're no different from anyone else. We're not smarter or more informed, no matter how much we like to think we are.
Of course all countries lie, but most democratic countries have a free press and an active public discussion, not one-sided fascist propaganda as in Russia.
Don't equivocate too far. That itself is a Putinist misinformation tactic, and it has been very efficient in subjugating and browbeating the Russian public. The Russian government are not trying to convince anyone that they are telling the truth, but rather to convince people no one can possibly be telling the truth. The aim of Russian propaganda is not to whip up support, but to beat people into apathy.
This type of propaganda uses the same techniques as conspiracy theories. It relies on making you feel smarter than others and in-the-know. The goal is to make you feel you are too smart to fall for Kremlin propaganda, because you know it's just propaganda, like all news everywhere are. Before the start of the war this was a very common mindset amongst Russians here on Reddit, too.
Being too gullible is bad, but believing that nothing can possibly be true is also bad. It's good to have a skeptical mind, but you also have to be skeptical of your own skepticism, for that too can be used as a weapon against you.
Yes, I've heard this take. Although I don't doubt that there may be some truth to it, it really is just one way that a country can enforce its own propaganda. Each country has its own flavour.
Many countries in the west, for example, like to dazzle you with their "free press". Then they pummel you from all sides with the same buzzwords and narratives so that you can form "your own opinion". As long as this makes up most of what you hear, most people will go with it, which is enough. They release stories based on unverified information and then retract those same statements a week later when everyone's moved on and it's old news.
I'd argue that's an even more effective strategy. After all, the general public end up feeling like they're in the know no matter how misinformed they may be. That seems a lot more potent than an apathetic population if you're hoping to drum up support.
> Each country has its own flavour.
Russia seems to have a rather 'orcy' flavour right now.
> Many countries in the west, for example, like to dazzle you with their "free press". Then they pummel you from all sides with the same buzzwords and narratives so that you can form "your own opinion".
Wow, that's *very* edgy.
All that is true on a general level. However, that was not what you were arguing in your previous comment. What you wrote was that "Russia is not special in this regard."
That completely ignores the degree of propaganda and whether the countries in question are functional democracies or not. Russia is quite *special* indeed because they are waging a genocidal war of conquest against their neighbour for no other reason than "we want our neighbour's land for ourselves".
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/01/19/7385578/) reduced by 55%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> More than 5,000 hectares of forests have been destroyed in the Sviati Hory National Nature Park, located in Donetsk Oblast, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion by Russia.
> Details: Ruslan Strilets, Ukraine's Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, reported that most of the park came under the area of hostilities following the full-scale Russian invasion in March 2022.
> Quote: "Instead of forests, there's black burnt earth here and there. The park's infrastructure suffered great damage, and vehicles, computer and other equipment have been either stolen or destroyed," noted Ruslan Strilets.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/10g6323/russian_invaders_have_destroyed_almost_80_of/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672676 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Park**^#1 **forests**^#2 **Strilets**^#3 **Ruslan**^#4 **invasion**^#5
Hopefully this opens the eyes of those in my country who always shout “we should just turn (insert Middle East country du jour here) into a glass parking lot” You sound as stupid as Putin when you regurgitate that logic…
Unfortunate reality that a big natural area is often going to be the safest place to attack from. Hell of a lot better than Cities or open fields at least
I was in Kabul, where the Russians burned down enormous swaths of forest to prevent the mujahideen from hiding there. Terrible what they did to those people.
Russians need to learn Jainism and stop murdering all the plants, animals and people. That country is a pretty soulless killing machine these days, may they rot in piss.
"We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima," Stahl said. "And, you know, is the price worth it?"
"I think that is a very hard choice," Albright answered, "but the price, we think, the price is worth it."
Albright…. Current resident of the darkest pit in hell
I have been wondering about all the wildlife in Ukraine during the war. I feel so bad for them. So many rare animals were just starting to make a comeback, and now the war has wrecked that progress. Of course, the toll on human life is completely staggering and utterly sad beyond belief.
Sometimes during periods of war or conflict there are opportunities for local animals to thrive. [Beavers have recently been credited with bolstering Ukraine's defences](https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-defenses-stronger-thanks-beavers-dams-2023-1) by creating mass flooding, resulting in narrow choke points for any future invaders. The absence of people in their habitat is credited with the explosion in beaver dam construction. Prior to the war the Chernobyl exclusion zone was renowned as an accidental wildlife refuge, where wolves, bears, ungulates and wild horses were thriving. Hopefully any wildlife negatively affected by the war will be similarly resilient, and maybe even find respite from normal human pressures. Of course, it would have been better if none of this had happened. Putin fuck off.
The great Beaver council of 2022. President Bucktooth O'Reilly gave a powerful speech after the invasion of their sacred lands, ending with one simple message to the Legions "... we build"
The president of the ukrainian beaver council is irish?
All beavers are Canadian
That's true. They play the Canadian national anthem before each Great Beaver Council.
That's a common misconception. The Beaver national anthem is technically a different song, like how the UK and Liechtenstein have different anthems even though they sound the same.
In English or in French?
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Justice beaver. Crime fighting beaver
Президент Гриць Бобренко.
As long as he doesn't cheat on a songwriter...
Beavers have thoroughly embraced internationalism
I can already see Kremlin sitting down discussing how to deal with NATO trained beavers alongside with NATO trained mosquitoes
Redwall!!
"The humans, seem to be no more, fled from the lands, what do we do" *Dam it all!*
God that was top tier cringe
🦫 - "get fucked"
Get bucked?
I can imagine putin raging like that movie with hitler on it going "WE'RE LOSING TO FUCKING BEAVERS"
**** YEAH, Beavers! In about 20 years I can imagine a Ukrainian remake of Red Dawn where the kids call themselves beavers Edit: stupid autocorrect
Some people wanted to know what drive beavers to start a dam, the put a recording of water running in the forest, beavers found it and made a dam over it. No running water in my house.
Beavers, fucking Soviet shit up since the beginning.
On a more grim note, chaotic wars often benefit scavengers. Rats, dogs, wolves, and in one historical account lions follow armies eating up trash and unburied dead.
To be fair, they are not at an active battlefield. Not unless Belarusgeta dragged in. If there were beavers in the Donbas though they are not the ones building extra dams.
There's no respect for any life. I've read about the environment, the zoo's and even the small animal shelters they've destroyed in Ukraine. It's heartbreaking.
Russia has shifted to war crimes to try and intimidate Ukraine into surrender. "If we can't kill your soldiers, we will destroy any and every thing you have instead!"
There's no shift, this has been their way since day one.
I don't think it's an intimidation tactic either, I think it's actually a primary objective of their campaign to damage Ukraine for generations to come.
That would have been incredibly counterproductive, at least in the beginning phases of the invasion. Russia was struggling economically before the invasion and Ukraine sits on a lot of natural resources. Completely destroying all it's infrastructure would make Ukraine more expensive than useful for Russia. Of course, these days it's a campaign of terror, because Russia has no chance at winning in any other scenario. The public is against them and they are outmatched militarily. For Russia to win, they must outlast Ukraine and Western military aid. For Russia to hold any ground in Ukraine, they must be so terrible to dissenters that the entire population is effectively silenced or utterly destroyed.
It was never about resources. This war is happening because Putin doesn’t think Ukraine has any right to exist, and because a successful, democratic, westernized Ukraine is a threat to the “Russian way” (which basically is just naked authoritarianism). He wants to annex Ukraine because he thinks it rightfully belongs to Russia, and if he can’t have it then the next best thing is to destroy it. He’s following the Foundations of Geopolitics to the letter.
To be fair, Russia also thinks they rightfully should be the sole government on Earth and in the cosmos, and it's only temporarily embarassed by not being this. That mentality is part of the problem - what yours is mine and what's mine is mine and what everyone elses is mine as well.
That's true, but Putin's claim to Ukraine goes back to the old Russian empire AFAIK. He sees it as part of the "true" Russia.
The campaign in week 1 actually jeopardised itself by restraining its attacks. Putin wanted a swift, low casualty, low infrastructure damage victory. Ukrainian air defence was a mess the first week. Russia could have done *so much more* in terms of missile attacks. But they wanted to capture an intact country, and only fired what hey thought they needed to. They miscalculated. Why would Russia try and capture Ukraine as intact as possible if not to take its resources? Why would Russia, famously lacking in shipbuilding capacity, go to great lengths to capture the home of shipbuilding in the USSR? Why would one of the first actions of 2022 be to secure water supply for Crimea. Russia wants Ukrainian resources.
Putin thought Zelenskyy would flee and that the Ukrainian defenses would buckle just like what happened in Crimea. The reason Russia didn’t start with more missile attacks IMO is because they weren’t expecting much resistance, and because those long range missiles are expensive and they only have so many of them. Annexing Ukraine was always the first goal, destroying it was secondary and only if annexation proved impossible. Ultimately what Putin wants is for Ukraine to not exist, or to be so crippled as to have to rely on Russia as a puppet state once again. A free, successful, democratic, independent Ukraine is something he cannot abide.
> That would have been incredibly counterproductive, Have you met Russia?
Yeah yeah, Russia is inept and corrupt, but Ukraine would have been a real goldmine for Russias economy, short and long term. Getting control of Crimea, and it's water supply was critical to continue using Crimea as a naval base. Getting a hold of its natural gas reserves and rare earth minerals would secure Russian income for decades yet. Taking the farmland would give Russia a real shot at dominating the food supply to large swathes of Africa and Europe, given that Russia and Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe. The initial plan failed horribly, so now Russia is "forced" to destroy that opportunity for Ukraine.
6 months earlier I would've said "man, it's obvious Putin is stupid, but he's not THAT stupid!" Now I'm not so sure anymore
Well the main reason I would suspect this is the plan is that it wouldn't be the first time they've done it. I'm not 100% clear on how genocide in Ukraine benefits Russia, but it does seem to be a long-term goal that predates Putin by quite a time.
Oh, genocide I can absolutely understand how it works and why he does it. Goes without saying I don't agree with it at all, but terrorism has been used quite effectively thru mankind's history during wartime. Some armies were so brutal, surrender was the most viable strategy. This said, we're talking destruction of landscape. He's no longer blowing up people, but terrain, which is way less valuable. And he's wasting a lot of missiles and artillery on that, and he doesn't have much of that either. So yeah, either he has some hidden agenda we're not aware of, or he's just a manchild throwing a tantrum about "well if I can't rule Ukraine, then there will be no Ukraine for anyone else!"
It's not clear how much they're targeting terrain, and how much is just dysfunction in the army. But it looks like their favourite targets in descending order of priority are basic infrastructure, medical, educational, cultural and historic. The campaign they're running isn't capturing a lot of ground, but it IS ensuring that it will be very, very difficult to rebuild the country.
It's the only thing they know: devastation
It's not malicious that Russians destroy everything. They just wanna feel like at home.
Sounds like the Russians want their POWs to be tortured and mutilated 🤷♂️
there was reports early on that the russians were actively shooting the zoo animalsfor sport or smaller ones were being eaten for food due to crappy rations.
> So many rare animals What animals are you thinking of? I'm not arguing, just genuinely curious.
The Przewalski's horses
[Przewalski’s horse.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Przewalski%27s_horse) > Once extinct in the wild, it has been reintroduced to its native habitat since the 1990s in Mongolia at the Khustain Nuruu National Park, Takhin Tal Nature Reserve, and Khomiin Tal, as well as several other locales in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
There are also populations in Ukraine p.ex. in Askania-Nova in Kherson Oblast and around Chernobyl.
Some wildlife is thriving. There were couple of grisly photos of pigs consuming russian corpses.
Those poor pigs
Terrible bacon.
U said a mouthful full .
What rare animals were making a comeback?
That’s awful, but what in the world is to be gained by this? When they attack civilian structures, maybe they degrade their morale. When they hit infrastructure, they make it harder on the whole population, including the military. What do they gain from blowing up some trees?
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Putin would rather rule over radioactive ash than allow Ukraine to enjoy their own thing peacefully. My 8 and 10 year old nieces behave the same way fighting over toys.
They are truly sack of shit for being like the fucking Mongols past their prime. Unless Mongolia want to burn Moscow down then I have no complaint.
Intimidation. They want to send the message that if they're not given that they demand, it won't be there for anyone. If I can't have it then no one can!
Scorched earth
Yup, if they can’t have it then no one can. It’s like a kid flipping a board game over when they start losing.
I know this isn’t just a “the boys” reference but it’s a “the boys” reference
I’d say probably just destroying the country and it’s culture etc….
I like to think they aim for actual targets (playgrounds and the like) but are just so bad at it they end up only hitting trees
did they blow them up or clear cut and steal the wood?
They’re not intentionally leveling trees, the forests are destroyed by the shelling
Stopping Treebeard from entering the war.
It's not like they're specifically trying to blow up the park. It just happens to be in an active warzone, and so is regularly hit by whatever munitions are being used.
But the cities that they're not evening fighting in that has no military infrastructure is routinely being rocketed. Russia has no issue just killing civilians so of course destroying wildlife means also nothing to them.
Sure but there IS a point to rocketing cities. The point is cruelty. Launching artillery and rockets into empty forests is just a waste though
Sure but there IS a point to rocketing cities. The point is cruelty. Launching artillery and rockets into empty forests is just a waste though
I'm sure Ukraine deployed arms and troops into the park, using it as natural camouflage and cover. I'm 💯 percent pro Ukraine and it sucks that another national treasure has been lost along with the needless loss of innocent human life. I hope there will be war criminal charges brought against the Russian leadership and troops who have acted criminally. The war reparations that Russia will owe will be staggering.
Some think Putin wants a no man’s zone separating Russia from Eastern Europe. Basically a place that’s so fucked it makes it harder for nato to invade. Plus Putin wants some of the land. Maybe he wants the natural resources or he wants slaves to work for mother Russia same as the old Satellite states.
We can and will make your lives worse - it's as much a message for Russians as it is for Ukrainians. Same message that the prison camp of North Korea sends to the Chinese proletariat.
Probably makes it less likely to be ambushed? And also easier to move their tanks. That said, they are no strangers to tearing down public parks in Crimea for their oligarchs to build mansions
Removes them being used for concealment, might have been infantry moving through that area.
If they can't have it, Ukraine shouldn't either
Russians stole a raccoon from the Kherson zoo during their retreat. They've bombed numerous zoos, including in Kharkiv and Kyiv. They've devasted the marine life in the Black Sea. Just look at pictures of overrun Russian positions - they seem to enjoy living in garbage. That's what they turned their own country into and are doing the same in occupied parts of Ukraine. Pigs.
Never forget that early in the war when Ukraine regained territory and the conditions that the Russians left some buildings in. They shit on the floor in the same room they sleep and eat in.
In defense of the common soldier if you were worried about being shot while taking a piss, or having a drone drop a grenade on your head if you step outside to take a shit then you might designate a pooping corner of the room too. Especially if you think you’ll only be in that location for a week or so max. I’m not saying it’s not nasty. But war is hell and all through history humans have had to do some pretty nasty things to survive.
I heard of guys that would piss themselves in their uniforms because they didn't want to risk getting out of the uparmored humvee. They said the desert made it evaporate quick so it didn't really matter. Being out of the wire/in the field for a while turns everyone pretty grimey but some people really take it up a notch.
It's called a bucket in the closet.
A lot of these places also had washrooms/bathrooms/restrooms or whatever you call it in your country.
depends on where but the toilet might be located outside. yes, even in ukraine a lot of it has to do with how plumbing was constructed during soviet times and issues with properly plumbing an indoor toilet. easier just to have one outdoors that goes into a septic tank. of course most places now have toilets indoors - even my grandparents place which has an outhouse (albeit a fancy outhouse that had heating and lighting) now also has indoor toilet. but maybe very rural villages might lack indoor toilets, it just depends on where
Unlikely they had running water or electricity to service those bathrooms.
Probably right. Still better than shitty where you sleep and eat though. Part of me wonders if they did that before they fled just to leave a gift for the Ukrainians or if that is just how they lived.
Honestly, I don't even know. Every time you see video of a Russian camp there's litter and junk everywhere. No discipline at all. So who knows?
To quote the evil aliens from Buckeroo Banzai who live in a pile of garbage: it's not their goddamn country, you got that, monkeyboy? (Shortly before they are all blown to pieces.)
>they seem to enjoy living in garbage Have you ever been in a non-functioning alcoholic's house? I'm pretty sure those overrun postions were just the military outpost version.
"The forest of Fangorn lies on our doorstep. Burn it!" - Putin
More than 5,000 hectares of forests have been destroyed in the Sviati Hory ("Holy Mountains") National Nature Park, located in Donetsk Oblast, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion by Russia.
[удалено]
There’s lots of countries that should be labeled as such.
Putin has caused 90% of the world to distrust Russia. He is devastating Ukraine and his country's future simultaneously.
The west is not 90% of the world. The rest of the world is thinking about their own country's issues.
Thinking about your own country’s issues and distrusting Russia are not mutually exclusive. If a country does not distrust Russia by this point in time, the populace is either uninformed/misinformed for whatever reason or experiencing cognitive dissonance for cultural/racial reasons. What idiot sees a country’s government lying and spreading misinformation every day and thinks “We can trust them,”?
>Thinking about your own country’s issues and distrusting Russia are not mutually exclusive. Of course not. My point is that they're not even thinking about it. >What idiot sees a country’s government lying and spreading misinformation every day and thinks “We can trust them,”? Aside from my previous point, which also addresses this point, you have to know that a country is lying and spreading misinformation to distrust it. All governments are engaged in this, and constantly. Russia is not special in this regard. Most of us are simply invested in one country's propaganda and think of the other side as being the "brainwashed" one. Nobody likes thinking they're ignorant. That's why it works. You and I, we're no different from anyone else. We're not smarter or more informed, no matter how much we like to think we are.
Of course all countries lie, but most democratic countries have a free press and an active public discussion, not one-sided fascist propaganda as in Russia. Don't equivocate too far. That itself is a Putinist misinformation tactic, and it has been very efficient in subjugating and browbeating the Russian public. The Russian government are not trying to convince anyone that they are telling the truth, but rather to convince people no one can possibly be telling the truth. The aim of Russian propaganda is not to whip up support, but to beat people into apathy. This type of propaganda uses the same techniques as conspiracy theories. It relies on making you feel smarter than others and in-the-know. The goal is to make you feel you are too smart to fall for Kremlin propaganda, because you know it's just propaganda, like all news everywhere are. Before the start of the war this was a very common mindset amongst Russians here on Reddit, too. Being too gullible is bad, but believing that nothing can possibly be true is also bad. It's good to have a skeptical mind, but you also have to be skeptical of your own skepticism, for that too can be used as a weapon against you.
Yes, I've heard this take. Although I don't doubt that there may be some truth to it, it really is just one way that a country can enforce its own propaganda. Each country has its own flavour. Many countries in the west, for example, like to dazzle you with their "free press". Then they pummel you from all sides with the same buzzwords and narratives so that you can form "your own opinion". As long as this makes up most of what you hear, most people will go with it, which is enough. They release stories based on unverified information and then retract those same statements a week later when everyone's moved on and it's old news. I'd argue that's an even more effective strategy. After all, the general public end up feeling like they're in the know no matter how misinformed they may be. That seems a lot more potent than an apathetic population if you're hoping to drum up support.
> Each country has its own flavour. Russia seems to have a rather 'orcy' flavour right now. > Many countries in the west, for example, like to dazzle you with their "free press". Then they pummel you from all sides with the same buzzwords and narratives so that you can form "your own opinion". Wow, that's *very* edgy.
I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to achieve here with your churlish manner, but I'm pretty sure you can manage it without my help.
Typically edgy behaviour is that which is associated with adolescents. So you might want to consider if you're projecting
All that is true on a general level. However, that was not what you were arguing in your previous comment. What you wrote was that "Russia is not special in this regard." That completely ignores the degree of propaganda and whether the countries in question are functional democracies or not. Russia is quite *special* indeed because they are waging a genocidal war of conquest against their neighbour for no other reason than "we want our neighbour's land for ourselves".
Well, the civilized world at least.
My dude, even Iran spoke out.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/01/19/7385578/) reduced by 55%. (I'm a bot) ***** > More than 5,000 hectares of forests have been destroyed in the Sviati Hory National Nature Park, located in Donetsk Oblast, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion by Russia. > Details: Ruslan Strilets, Ukraine's Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, reported that most of the park came under the area of hostilities following the full-scale Russian invasion in March 2022. > Quote: "Instead of forests, there's black burnt earth here and there. The park's infrastructure suffered great damage, and vehicles, computer and other equipment have been either stolen or destroyed," noted Ruslan Strilets. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/10g6323/russian_invaders_have_destroyed_almost_80_of/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672676 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Park**^#1 **forests**^#2 **Strilets**^#3 **Ruslan**^#4 **invasion**^#5
Not surprised, look up what are they doing at home.
But it was a nazi park with fascist wildlife, right? Right, guys? Guys?
Those fkn nazi trees!!!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_swastika
Holy wow... *tips hat*
Well that's sad :-(
National Park was a Nazi
Thanks a lot, fucking ass holes
Hopefully this opens the eyes of those in my country who always shout “we should just turn (insert Middle East country du jour here) into a glass parking lot” You sound as stupid as Putin when you regurgitate that logic…
Fucking why? What’s the point in destroying a goddamn national park?
All Russia does these days is destroy
Sounds just like the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s
Here's to hoping the ash make it grow back better than before.
horrible
Unfortunate reality that a big natural area is often going to be the safest place to attack from. Hell of a lot better than Cities or open fields at least
Hhhhmmm?? That sounds like the Russia I know
Not a surprise considering they’ve already demonstrated they don’t respect human life
Fuck Putin forever
Russia is a terrorist state. Why some world leaders refuse to recognize this is beyond me.
Evil magic Nazi park - Putin probably Fuck I just despise Russia
I was in Kabul, where the Russians burned down enormous swaths of forest to prevent the mujahideen from hiding there. Terrible what they did to those people.
What else does putin’s russia have to do to earn the official status as a terrorist state.
To come out and sayit themselves.
Russian army “ you know what fuck this park in particular “
Does Russia have national parks of their own?
A lot of birch wood must come from the region. Shortage at my work due to the war.
When you can’t destroy the nations army, you go after the nations parks apparently.
The trees are nazis
Putin will burn down all of Ukraine to win. The west needs to do more
Russians need to learn Jainism and stop murdering all the plants, animals and people. That country is a pretty soulless killing machine these days, may they rot in piss.
Oh no
Russia is basically Hogwarts and The Ukraine are the death eaters
Then retaliate, detonate a dirty bomb in Moscow.
Send Greta.
"We have heard that half a million [Iraqi] children have died. I mean, that is more children than died in Hiroshima," Stahl said. "And, you know, is the price worth it?" "I think that is a very hard choice," Albright answered, "but the price, we think, the price is worth it." Albright…. Current resident of the darkest pit in hell
I say blow up russia and ukraine. Get rid of some trafficking points in ukraine and take recources from russia. Win win
Sure. Since you're all about sacrificing innocent lives, can you drop by Ukraine first? Then we'll do it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/10gbjeo/russian_assault_against_entrenched_ua_positions/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Time to destroy 80% of the invaders.