A-Infos (en) Czech, [Ukraine]: Forcibly mobilized and then killed by drones. The murderous logic of war in action (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Article by the Czech Anarchist Internationalists from the 
"Anti-Militaristic Initiative".  ---- Mainstream media outlets are 
publishing articles about how the Russian military treats deserters 
terribly. "Chained to trees, locked in metal tanks, or dragged behind 
jeeps - this is the reality for Russian soldiers who refused to fight in 
Ukraine ," they note. 1 ---- As usual, not much is written about the 
equally horrific mass killings of Ukrainian deserters. One thing is 
certain, however. The fighting capacity of both armies is based in part 
on forced mobilization and torture techniques designed to deter 
desertion and force even those who do not want to go to the front to do 
so. While thousands of soldiers try to desert, others are sent to the 
front against their will, hoping to live until tomorrow. That is, of 
course, if a "suicide" drone armed with explosives does not happen to 
land on their heads. On the Internet, we can see videos of such drones 
belonging to the Ukrainian army killing Russian soldiers on motorcycles, 
in trenches, on roads, in forests, plains, and elsewhere. 2

In most cases, footage of these events is accompanied by articles that 
glorify them and cynically dehumanize the victims. They never ask who 
these people are and how they ended up in the place where they were 
mercilessly killed. It is impossible not to notice that even the 
anti-fascist and "anarchist" movements organize fundraising for drones 
for the Ukrainian army. And since - like the pro-Western mainstream - 
this "radical left" environment also presents the war as a defensive 
action against the occupiers, it is probably not particularly concerned 
about the fact that its drones may be killing Russian soldiers who were 
forced to go to the front under threat of punishment. In the logic of 
the "defensive war," every Russian soldier at the front is a Putinist 
and an occupier. 3 Thousands of deserters and forcibly mobilized 
soldiers mean nothing to the adherents of this logic and can be 
ruthlessly eliminated. 4 But what such an approach has to do with the 
declared struggle for freedom and justice is something that the 
supporters of this line will not explain to us. After all, most of them 
do not have to face fire from either side in the war. They simply send 
financial donations from time to time from the safe haven of a spoiled 
petty bourgeoisie (or their descendants) and then write ideological 
gibberish full of vague phrases about the struggle for freedom and 
self-determination of the Ukrainian people.

In contrast, the soldiers on both the Ukrainian and Russian fronts are 
mostly proletarians who do not have access to these privileges. Yes, 
they are proletarians, because the proletariat has not ceased to exist 
just because some people decided to remove this word from their 
vocabulary. The truth is that many proletarians are at the front 
involuntarily and under duress. 5 Very few of them have the means or the 
documents to flee abroad. Many of them live illegally: they avoid banks, 
they leave the big cities, they hide in the forests. If anything makes 
sense from an anarchist perspective, it is to support them, not to 
create drones to kill them or to track them so that someone else can 
kill them. 6

Solidarity with deserters and those forcibly mobilized!

Resistance against those who create machines to kill them!

Class solidarity against the murderous logic of war!

For example here: 
https://cnn.iprima.cz/ukrajinska-droni-elita-v-akci-madarovi-ptaci-vyzobali-rusy-na-motocyklech-ti-zkaze-neujeli-479487
https://cnn.iprima.cz/zabery-ukrajinske-likvidace-okupantu-ruskeho-vojaka-zachranila-lopatka-467046
https://cnn.iprima.cz/zabery-hruzy-v-ocich-kratce-pred-vybuchem-ukrajinske-drony-likviduji-ruske-okupanty-475517
And here: 
https://www.msn.com/cs-cz/zpravy/other/ukrajinsk%C3%A9-drony-ude%C5%99ily-na-rusk%C3%A9-voj%C3%A1ky-v-lese/vi-AA1JzxmT
What we see in this video? A man in uniform with a backpack is walking 
through the forest when he is suddenly shot by a drone. To the viewer, 
this is presented as a sensational video about how Ukrainian defenders 
stopped the occupier. However, the video does not make it at all clear 
who he was, why he was there, and whether he even wanted to be there, or 
was forced by officers and is under threat of punishment. He is dead and 
no one will ask him.
The reality speaks for itself. Forced mobilization and the high 
desertion rate in the Russian army prove that not every soldier on the 
front is a supporter of Putin. On the contrary, many of them are victims 
of Putinism, just like those who are being shelled in Ukrainian cities. 
https://antimilitarismus.noblogs.org/post/2025/02/04/over-russian-18000-soldiers-desert/ 

The Solidrones initiative, which reportedly produces "drones for 
anti-authoritarian fighters in Ukraine," states: "The defenders spend 
tens of thousands of drones every month because a single precision drone 
strike can destroy a much more expensive tank and hinder the advance of 
the occupiers." https://www.afed.cz/text/8191/solidrones

There is no doubt that they use drones, which are weapons designed to 
destroy and kill. But even if someone wants to argue that they can also 
use drones for supply or reconnaissance, it is important to clarify one 
thing. Even in such cases, drones serve as a means of supporting 
senseless killing. There is no significant difference between a forcibly 
mobilized soldier being shot directly by a drone and being tracked down 
by a drone and then killed by infantry (often also equipped with 
drones), artillery, or air force.

A number of other questions are also relevant.

Can the so-called "anti-authoritarian forces" that produce or operate 
drones decide how and against whom they will be used? This would be 
possible in the case of a guerrilla war organized autonomously outside 
the state and against the state. However, this is not the case with 
these people, who, by their own admission, are integrated into the 
official state army of Ukraine. Therefore, the army authorities 
determine how the drones will be used by the "anti-authoritarian forces" 
and there can be no question of autonomy of action. What will these 
"anti-authoritarian forces" do when their officers order them to use 
drones to track deserters trying to escape? After all, this is one of 
the tasks of the Ukrainian army, which they voluntarily serve.
According to surviving Russian soldiers, they were not allowed to 
evacuate because a blocking unit guarding them from behind would not 
allow them to leave their front-line positions and would fire if they 
tried to retreat. Forcing soldiers to advance may be less risky in some 
cases than retreating and deserting. This brutal tactic was used by the 
army under Stalin, and today the Russian army is returning to this practice.
Forced mobilization and subsequent killing by drones are also well known 
to the population in Ukraine. However, we do not know of a single case 
where the production of drones by the Russian army was financed with 
money from so-called anti-authoritarians or anarchists. In any case, we 
must condemn the forced mobilization and murderous use of drones against 
the working class, regardless of whether these practices are used by the 
Ukrainian, Russian, or any other state army.

https://www.anarchy.bg
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en