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

It is 20 of November. Today marks exactly 1000 days since I joined the army. This means the full-scale invasion has been ongoing for 1001 days. I insist on this term "full-scale invasion" because the war began much earlier, on the winter of 2014. This was not 1000 days ago, but 3000

926 days ago. This 1001 day marked the time when the war affected all Ukrainians, reaching not only the homes of the residents of Crimea and Donetsk, but literally everyone. Yesterday I wrote a piece on Substack about

how this war was perceived 1000 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'll just briefly summarize it. We were very naive and genuinely believed this could all end quickly and naturally with our victory. But it's important to include the perspective of professional soldiers, or at least who had experience fighting Russia in Donbass in 2014 and the following years.

Here's the thing. They also thought it would be relatively quick. However, from their point of view, this quick scenario was entirely different from what we imagined.

Professional soldiers in war's 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 brake 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 the state apparatus evacuated to, these invaders would already be exposed and more likely to negotiate. But things turned out very differently. But anyway, this is far from over. A long war still lies ahead.