A recent event led me to fact check something that I thought must be untrue, which is that Ukraine conscripts people into the military against their will, including making those people that had previously fulfilled their obligations return to the battlefield.
Moreso, when browsing X recently I saw bunch of videos being posted of what claimed were police forcing people into vans to go fight in Ukraine. The police were beating these people in the process. Now, it is possible that some of this content is propaganda, but I did want to find out if Ukraine forces conscription.
It appears that it is true:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_Ukraine
I am very much against conscription. I still support Ukraine’s independence, but the fact that they are forcing people to fight through beatings, arrests, etc. is sickening to me and makes me lose respect for Zelensky. According to an estimate by Ukrainian commanders, 50% to 70% of Ukrainian conscripts are killed or wounded in their first few days in combat on some areas of the front.
What are others thoughts on this?
If the people are being forced against their will then that is not independence. The definition of independent is not being subjected to control by others. At that point they’ve just substituted one authoritarian instead of another.
This is where the fundamental disagreement lies then. The reality is that the people are going to be forced against their will to either give up their land and culture to Russia or have a portion of their citizens forced to fight to defend the existence of Ukraine and the self determination of the rest of the citizens. I think your view here is too black and white to accurately capture the reality of the situation.