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Originally Posted by Sliver
That's crazy to think about. Imagine shooting at your friends. Idk. I can't see it, but those guys are being put in a position I've never been close to finding myself in. I think I'd put a bullet in my own brain before I'd turn a gun on my own countrymen.
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Yeah, it would be a very hard decision to make. They acknowledged the fact that they will never be welcome back in Russia.
I believe there are already confirmed Belarussian units on the Ukrainian side. They also carefully chose their words to make it clear that they were dissidents fighting Lukashenko for a free Belarus.
Here are a couple of links that talk about it.
https://time.com/6165422/russians-in-ukraine/
It's a subscription, but you can sign in with a Google or Facebook account.
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Ukraine’s government, which has cast the war as a contest between the forces of darkness and light, is leveraging Russian disunity. On April 5, three men wearing military fatigues and black balaclavas faced reporters in Kyiv, where they announced a new battalion called “Freedom for Russia,” composed entirely of Russian citizens, including former POWs. Addressing their fellow Russians, they said they were morally outraged by Moscow’s lack of discipline and apparent disregard for human life.
One of the unnamed men said the Russian government had tricked them into going to a sovereign country to carry out what he described as “genocide.” After he was taken prisoner – and later released – by Ukrainian forces, he switched sides to fight for Ukraine. “We were told propaganda. But there are no fascists here, no Nazis, but a civilian population,” he said. “I want to fight this lawless Putin regime so people can speak and breathe freely.”
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/belarus...me-11649325276
Another subscription site, so I didn't read the whole thing.
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KYIV, Ukraine—For Pavel Kulazhanka, just like many Belarusian and Russian fighters who have joined Ukraine’s military in recent weeks, the path to freedom at home runs through defeating the Russian army here first.
Hundreds of volunteers from Belarus have joined a dedicated Belarusian battalion and other formations of Ukrainian armed forces since Russian President Vladimir Putin triggered the invasion on Feb. 24, with more than a 1,000 others still awaiting vetting and training, Belarusian opposition leaders say.
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