Ok, so Ukraine has looked for people with combat experience and found them - no big deal in an area with relatively common civil wars and cartel activitiy to find people who know how to use guns, even when not in employ of a cartel. How many of them are “actual criminals”? (being an ex-gang member is a plus if they left the gang mate). And making sure the insurance money goes to the family of the deceased is pretty standard for any mercenary contract.
The russians tell them they will work as a cook or maintance or something before giving them a contract in russian and a beating if they don’t sign until they do. Then russians rip them off: the first thing they do is subtract the cost of the equipment or they make them buy it themselves (that’s why you can buy military gear on WildBerries and makes WildBerries a legitimate target). If they die noone else gets the money, because they are not insured at all, why would the kremlin care?
This is not comparable. One is the common life of a mercenary, and many mercenaries have less than stellar rep sheets, the other is close to a human trafficing victim. Russia doesn’t even care about the lives of their own soldiers, why should they care for some “subhuman” foreigner?
Ok, so Ukraine has looked for people with combat experience and found them - no big deal in an area with relatively common civil wars and cartel activitiy to find people who know how to use guns, even when not in employ of a cartel. How many of them are “actual criminals”? (being an ex-gang member is a plus if they left the gang mate). And making sure the insurance money goes to the family of the deceased is pretty standard for any mercenary contract.
The russians tell them they will work as a cook or maintance or something before giving them a contract in russian and a beating if they don’t sign until they do. Then russians rip them off: the first thing they do is subtract the cost of the equipment or they make them buy it themselves (that’s why you can buy military gear on WildBerries and makes WildBerries a legitimate target). If they die noone else gets the money, because they are not insured at all, why would the kremlin care?
This is not comparable. One is the common life of a mercenary, and many mercenaries have less than stellar rep sheets, the other is close to a human trafficing victim. Russia doesn’t even care about the lives of their own soldiers, why should they care for some “subhuman” foreigner?