We Were Supposed To Slow Down Occupiers With Our Lives - November 20th 2024

November 20th 2024

Yuriy reflects on the 1,001 days since the full-scale invasion began and discusses how both naive civilians and experienced soldiers underestimated the war’s duration, initially believing in a quick resolution...

Here is the article Yuriy mentions in the episode: https://substack.com/home/post/p-151861795?source=queue

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TRANSCRIPT: (Apple Podcasts & Podbean app users can enjoy accurate closed captions)  

it is 20th of November.

Today marks exactly 1,000 days since I joined the army. This means the full-scale invasion has been ongoing for 1,001 days. I insist on this term full-scale invasion because the war began much earlier on the winter of 2014. This was not 1,000 days ago, but 3,926 days ago. This 1,001 days mark the time when the war affected all Ukrainians region, not only the homes of residents of Crimea and Dansk, but literally everyone. 

Yesterday, I wrote a piece on Substack about how this war was perceived 1,000 days ago by people like me, civilians, who decided to challenge the Russian onslaught and volunteered for the Army.  You can read that piece. There is a link to it in this episode's description. Here I will just briefly summarize it. We were very naive and genuinely believed this could all end quickly. End naturally with our victory. 

But it's important to include the perspective of professional soldiers, or at least who had experienced fighting Russia in Albas in 2014 and the following years. Here's the thing,   they also thought it would be relatively quick. However, from where point of view, this "quick" scenario was entirely different from what we imagined.  

Professional soldiers in those early days did not go out to win, but to die. They went to buy the country time to evacuate government institutions and military reserves closer to the western border. 

They- and alongside them us- were supposed to act as a break on the Russian army, slowing their advance with our lives. Slow down, not stop. The idea was that by the time the invaders could come closer to a few Western regions where the remnants of state apparatus evacuated to these invaders would already be exhausted and more likely to negotiate. 

But things turned out very differently. But anyway, this is far from over. A long war still lies ahead.