There is return fire in some of those videos. Also there are a lot of other videos out there where the fire is defnitely in both directions with pretty unpleasant consequences for everyone. This includes engagements that are definitely occurring in the last 24h, i.e. opsec control of some of this seems to have broken down to an extent. I'd rather not come across to any links to such videos here. It is not ideal finding them anywhere quite frankly.
If you want to have a read of how things are on the Russian side here is one, that of the paratrooper who has since gone public about his concerns. This is definitely genuine. It is rather long, and contains viewpoints that will create future issues.
See: https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1560037073784127488
czmyt.substack.com
Thanks for the link - I read thoroughly for 30 minutes, then started skimming, but quite interesting.
I think that in my anger at Putin for this terrible war, it's still important not to hate Russians themselves - all humans act on the info they have. He talks about the difficult position the military is in. For pages and pages he speaks against Russian military incompetence, but does point out that he personally knew (and constantly was around) the guy who Western media said got permission from his wife to rape women - pointed out it was a cleverly cut propaganda piece (he essentially says it was gallows humour - there was neither opportunity for this guy to rape anyone, and he states the unit would have shot his leg first if anyone tried to). Here's his conclusion:
"The media on both sides of us is just pouring lies to encourage us to kill each other as fiercely as possible, and we, like fools, believe in everything and rejoice in a new portion of *sugar* that is thrown at us like fans. Again, of course I can't vouch for the entire army. As no one adequate from the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to vouch for all his own. Does anyone have any doubts that in the Armed Forces of Ukraine there were also those who did not deny themselves moroderism, considering it their trophies? The worst thing is that under artillery fire,
aviation and missiles are dying children! Our Slavic children! There are very few of us Slavs in the world! But do you believe that an evil Russian soldier is deliberately pointing guns at them? He was given coordinates, he has no idea where he was shooting, he was told that there was an enemy, of course this is not an excuse, but you should not make all the survivors and killers. The main enemy of both Russians and Ukrainians is propaganda, it only further fuels hatred in people.
I do not want to justify anyone, but if we do not understand that our madness with a veil of hatred in front of us from the crazy propaganda of the destruction of each other, if we Slavs do not calm down and do not sober up from hatred, then we simply will not be, not Ukraine, not Russia.
Hatred and murder will destroy us, we must reach out to each other."
This is so important to keep it mind. Us humans have huge challenges ahead of us - wars like these hurt us all when we should instead use our resources to tackle hunger & poverty, climate shifts, disease, etc etc.
This is why I'm a Tesla and solar fan - a guy like Musk, as socially obnoxious as he can be, is trying to help all of us, not divide us in order to control us. And energy independence & decentralization reduces the power of oligarchs (of all stripes) - dictators somehow survive if the West relies on their oil/gas/$$$...
Anyway, hopefully this war can end soon - for the sake of all humans.
