From https://anarcomuk.uk/2023/06/10/ukraines-two-floods/
It has been well reported that up to 1,000,000 Russians have crossed their borders to avoid the war since the invasion. Much less focus is given to what’s happening for those Ukrainians who don’t want to heed national patriotism or fight.
The BBC reports that Ukrainian military service has been hard to enforce due to reluctance and corruption. Many are paying a monthly sum to avoid being called up. Ukrainian frontline commanders are reportedly complaining that the increasing number of conscripts too scared or unwilling to fight is proving a burden on the battlefield.
Many are risking their lives to cross the Tisa river in the west to seek refuge from combat in Romania. According to the Romanian government, at least 20,000 military aged men eligible for military service have entered the country since the beginning of the war, ostensibly to visit and then simply not return to the Ukraine.
Another 7,000 deserters have crossed the Tisa river despite armed patrols and road blocks, as the only way to save their lives. Ukraine’s police force claim they are detaining at least 20 men a day on the international border – each facing up to 10 years in prison in ‘free’ Ukraine.
Numbers appear to be growing despite the cost of ‘people smugglers’ and the dangers of the journey itself. Ukrainian sources say that at least 90 people have died from exposure, frostbite and drowning. One deserting combat veteran describes how even after reaching the Romanian side of the river, he was spotted by a Ukrainian patrol on the other bank: “I heard shots first, then a string of insults”.
Capitalism’s lust for profit and its consequential wars with rivals, targets our class. They shoot us, starve us, drown us and displace us. Ukraine’s two floods, the Dnipro south and the dissident’s west are mirrored on the Russian side of the front-lines. It is not about freedom or justice, it is about slaughter and greed. These are not war crimes, this is the crime of war.
Desertion is only one form of resistance. Perhaps at the height of the battle, it is the easiest one to take. However, to end the war, this war and the next, all of capitalism’s wars, resistance has to be globalised and militant.
The working class is in the firing line for capitalist greed whatever side of the frontier we are on. That is why we say that the fight to end it begins at home.
Uncompromisingly pursuing our class agenda here against their social peace to undermine their war, there. No war but the class war means exactly that.
The Polar Bl@st 