When Pavlo Zhilin and his patrol hit the streets of Cherkasy, men often swerve to avoid them.

Pavlo is a conscription officer looking for soldiers for Ukraine's army.

But almost two years into Russia's full-scale invasion, there's no flood of volunteers to the front line anymore.

Most of those who wanted to fight are either dead, injured or still stuck at the front waiting to be relieved by new recruits.

In the central town of Cherkasy, like elsewhere, finding them isn't easy now that the first burst of enthusiasm and energy has faded.

Ukraine is exhausted. Pavlo's story

"I don't get it. People are out and about, like the war is somewhere far away. But this is a full-scale invasion, and it's like people still don't care," Pavlo says.

He is frustrated by what he sees as indifference.

"We need everyone to come together like they did on the first day. Everyone was united then, like brothers."

Instead, the security service in Cherkasy is constantly shutting down local social media channels that warn people when the conscription teams are in town and alert them to areas to avoid.

At 24, Pavlo has sacrificed a lot for his country.

He grew up dreaming of being a soldier - his eyes light up when he remembers that - and he was serving in the army in February 2022 when Russian troops rolled across the border.

He fought near Kyiv, then Soledar in the eastern Donbas, where the battle was brutal. That first summer, he was moved to Bakhmut.

"We came under heavy fire. A shell landed next to me. I lost my whole elbow. There was nothing left," he says, describing an attack in which he was badly injured.

He managed to crawl beneath a bush and he began to pray.

The soldier admits that getting to hospital was a huge relief: not just because he'd survived, but because he was finally off the front line. "It was hard there. I can't even put it into words."

He looks down and falls quiet.

Pavlo's injuries were severe. His right arm was amputated below the shoulder, he still feels pain where his limb is missing, and he has shrapnel in his leg. His basic prosthetic gives him limited movement.

But he wanted to go on serving, so he became a conscription officer.

After all he's been through, I wonder whether he understands why other men evade the draft.

"One day, their children will ask what they did during the war, when the men were fighting. When they reply, 'I was hiding,' then they'll plummet in the children's eyes," Pavlo says firmly.

And yet the price Ukraine is paying to defend itself is already immense.

When I ask Pavlo whether he's lost friends in the fighting, he admits that there's "almost no one left" from his entire company.

"The only ones left are [injured] like me. The others are dead." Serhiy's story

Away from the eastern front line, there are signs of recovery among the ruins.

Irpin, near Kyiv, was occupied by Russian forces at the very start of the war. There are shell-shattered buildings all around, but also the sound of building work.

For those who lost everything, there are now small "towns" of pre-fabricated cabins, each with two rooms and a shower room. About half of the residents are from Irpin itself. Others have been displaced from closer to the front.

Lilia Saviuk and her husband have just moved in from Kakhovka in the east, still occupied by Russian forces.

At the start of the war, their son Serhiy was captured there and held in a basement. Lilia says he was tortured for shouting pro-Ukrainian slogans.

When Serhiy got out, he left the region and immediately signed up to fight for Ukraine.

When Lilia flicks through her phone for pictures to show me, it throws up images of terrible injuries.

Most of the flesh on one of her son's legs was blown off and his foot was in tatters.

Serhiy was injured last autumn in Avdiivka, where the fighting has been fierce and even Ukrainian officials admit their army is outgunned and outmanned.

One source put the difference at 8-1, in Russia's favour.

Lilia and her husband couldn't leave Kakhovka with Serhiy, because their elderly parents refused to go. So they stayed, under occupation, terrified the Russians might discover that their son was a soldier.

They finally left when Serhiy was injured, to be with him in hospital, but Lilia cries with the shame she feels at leaving relatives behind.

"We call and ask them, 'Is it quiet?'" she says, meaning is there shelling. "Everyone there is waiting for liberation. For it to be loud. But there is only quiet.

"People have been crying for so many months and nothing is getting any better."

But there is another fear driving Lilia's tears.

She shows me videos of her pushing her son around in a wheelchair. The two are laughing, covered in snow. Then there are pictures of the skin grafts he's had, where Lilia says the doctors have "performed a miracle".

But as soon as Serhiy is fully fit, he's told his mother he'll go back to the front. He says there are not enough soldiers there. His friends need him.

So Lilia is praying for the war to end first.

"I think he has already done his duty," she says, eyes full of tears. "As a mother, it is a sin to say this, but while he is in hospital, I can sleep calmly. I can't sleep when he is on the front line.

"So I am glad my son is in hospital now, although I really shouldn't say this. I'm glad he's not at the front." Vladislav's story

On the edge of Cherkasy, there is a cemetery with a long line of recent graves. They're for the men of all ages from the town who've died fighting since Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the order to invade.

Ukraine honours the dead as heroes, but it's left to their families to grieve.

Each grave is decorated with national flags and heaped with wreaths and flowers. There are images, fixed to crosses or etched into marble headstones, of the soldiers in military uniform.

Inna can't bear to put her son's photo on his grave yet. The image that she used for his funeral is still at home. She's not ready to let go.

Vladislav Bykanov was killed last June by a mine explosion near Bakhmut. He was about to turn 23 and already a deputy commander.

"I believe my son died doing the right thing," Inna says firmly, as her daughter cries quietly beside her.

"I'm a teacher and I always tell the children this: we are right, we are defending our country and our children. My son was defending us. He believed in this cause. And I believe," Inna says before pausing to take in the flags and faces all around.

She hasn't visited the cemetery for a little while and the row of soldiers' graves has grown.

"Do you think my son wasn't afraid? I was afraid too, when he went. Everyone's afraid of dying," she answers, when I wonder what she thinks of those who avoid signing up to fight.

"But maybe being enslaved by Russia is more frightening? Now we see death. It's very difficult. Very difficult. But there is no way back. We can't give up."

  • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    Pavlo's injuries were severe. His right arm was amputated below the shoulder, he still feels pain where his limb is missing, and he has shrapnel in his leg. His basic prosthetic gives him limited movement.

    Great idea to send this guy out as a conscription officer

    • happybadger [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpX-vtW2f54

      edit: Oh wow, it's even the same arm.

      • FALGSConaut [comrade/them]M
        ·
        10 months ago

        Exactly what came to mind when I was reading the article. Reality is beyond satire. You have a guy who's arm got blown off and who is fully admiting everyone in his unit is either dead or wounded like him, and he's wondering "Why does no one want to fight anymore?"

      • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
        ·
        10 months ago

        That reminds me of just how utopian and idealist Heinlein's thinking was writing the Starship Troopers novel, like the insane fascist society he described which locked personhood behind military service actively tried to dissuade people from joining the military, hence things like the recruitment officer being a triple amputee who plays up his injuries while working before then, in a subsequent scene, equipping advanced bionics and living a normal life. Along with things like the military allowing anyone to quit at any time for any reason, except in wartime. Like it's just so brainwormed and contradictory, that a system that demands violent subservience and participation in it would also try to disincentivize that. Why demand a military class if you also don't want participation in it? It's just this fucking 20th century democratic fascism idealism shit where "only real men" knowingly take up a "horrible burden" to enforce the state's hegemony, but no one has to because that would violate the NAP lmao.

        • D61 [any]
          ·
          10 months ago

          except in wartime

          I thought they could even quit during war time (because its always war time), just not in the middle of a battle?

          Also, I remember that there weren't a whole lot of "citizens" in that book. There were lots of unenfranchised and there were those actively in the military, but there weren't all that many fully enfranchised citizens.

          • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
            ·
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            I could have sworn it was "while at war" because I thought they were actually at peace before they started the multi-front war with the bugs and the other more humanized aliens who switch sides after being terror bombed with things like "a timed bomb that loudly counts down over thirty seconds, to let civilians run away so it's just scaring them instead of killing them" which is a whole other can of brainworms to unpack.

            • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]
              ·
              10 months ago

              to let civilians run away so it's just scaring them instead of killing them"

              Wait, was this portrayed as a humanitarian thing, or was it called out for being terrorism?

              • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
                ·
                edit-2
                10 months ago

                Heinlein seemed to think it was a clever, cool idea to maximize the impact of terror bombings. IIRC he spent like a paragraph talking about how smart it was.

                Heinlein may be a mixed bag overall in some senses and I can't deny that he wrote some extremely relatable egg shit, but his politics and ideas were pretty uniformly awful.

  • CommunistBear [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    What I want to know after all of this is said and done with, was it worth it? Like, all of this could have been avoided. Was getting some American missiles stationed in your country worth losing/crippling an entire generation?

    • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]
      ·
      10 months ago

      I work with a lib who absolutely sees all this as worth it; he also argues that the ethnic Russians in Donbas and other locations should've just left if they weren't wanted (he didn't say if they wanted to leave, he said if they weren't wanted).

      • wopazoo [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        10 months ago

        (he didn't say if they wanted to leave, he said if they weren't wanted).

        this person would've blamed jews for staying in europe instead of permanently leaving for palestine in the 1930s

        "maybe the jews should've just left if they weren't wanted in europe"

        • TheDialectic [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          Einstine did. He came to America and became a socialist. What is actually saying is that they don't have enough money to relocate he doesn't care about them. Perfectly liberal

      • VILenin [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        Did you try telling them you’re an independent journalist doing a story on Nazi ideology and you’d like to quote them?

  • happybadger [he/him]
    hexagon
    ·
    10 months ago

    Let's throw more money at Ukraine for more heartwarming stories of veterans overcoming their injuries to become conscription officers. As the democrats say, blood for the Blood God.

    • TimeTravel_0
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      I gotta wonder what the ukrainian people feel at this point. Is no price too high to remain nato's bitch or would they rather surrender to stop the bloodshed?

      • happybadger [he/him]
        hexagon
        ·
        10 months ago

        As proud as their grandfathers holding off the Soviet counteroffensive.

        • plinky [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          10 months ago

          Weren't there stories of fathers fighting on one side with sons on the other? Vast majority of ukraine was fighting on soviet side after all. They are not worshiping grandfathers, they are worshiping canadian failgranduncles.

          And they want to land on the exploiting side in the fortress evropa

          • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]
            ·
            10 months ago

            You know what's funny? The same people who claim they're not Nazis and are fighting the real Nazis tend to get real upset if you insult their hero Bandera. They'll tell you that you just don't understand; Imma be real, I agree I don't understand but Imma still call a guy who committed so many massacres of civilians a Nazi.

      • huf [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        they did create a lot of value for US shareholders...

        as rambo said, live for nothing or die for something.

      • SoyViking [he/him]
        ·
        10 months ago

        I guess a sizeable number of Ukrainians are ready to make peace with Russia, including accepting territorial changes and staying neutral. We just don't hear that much from them as they are not the ones being paraded around western journalists by the Kiev regime and since there can be severe consequences for coughing distracting opinions.

      • TheDialectic [none/use name]
        ·
        10 months ago

        In theory a good chunk of them were pro Russian to start. So probably most actual people don't want thr war.

  • ButtBidet [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    "I don't get it. People are out and about, like the war is somewhere far away. But this is a full-scale invasion, and it's like people still don't care," Pavlo says.

    I wish they could employ this level of urgency for climate change or COVID, not for a regional conflict with a majority Russian population.

    • Evilsandwichman [none/use name]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Didn't you know? This is apparently going to be war world 3, and Russia is going to nuke Earth, and only Captain Bidet can save us.

  • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
    ·
    10 months ago

    Yes, but at the end of the day, the survivors will get to enjoy all the freedoms and privileges they wouldn't have if they were part of Russia, such as... hmm, say, what was this all for, anyway?

  • footfaults
    ·
    edit-2
    30 days ago

    deleted by creator

    • D61 [any]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Playing Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory...

      spoiler

      as the Nazis

  • AsLeftAsTheyCome [they/them, any]
    ·
    10 months ago

    But maybe being enslaved by Russia is more frightening?

    internet-delenda-est

    I’m gonna need these people to define what they think slavery is.

  • moonlake [he/him]
    ·
    10 months ago

    "One day, their children will ask what they did during the war, when the men were fighting. When they reply, 'I was hiding,' then they'll plummet in the children's eyes," Pavlo says firmly.

    No they won't, you dumb fuck, those children are going to be happy because they still have a living father. They will understand that they are the lucky ones

    • happybadger [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      10 months ago

      step 1: give them a slightly more advanced missile

      step 2: ???

      step 3: give them a slightly more advanced missile

      step 4: ???

      step 5: give them a slightly more advanced missile

  • Teekeeus
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    deleted by creator

    • PKMKII [none/use name]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Naked Capitalism had an interesting theory the other day, that the end stage of the Russian invasion may involve Russia giving a lot of carrots, metaphorically, to the Ukrainians in the newly occupied territories as to win hearts and minds. If we end up with a situation where Russia pours resources into the separatist regions while the rump state in the west of Ukraine is abandoned by the West once regime change in Moscow is off the table, yeah I could see them getting bitter that the West was using them.

      • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        10 months ago

        They already had example of this with the quick rebuilding of Mariupol. Note how western media completely omit that and still pretend it's a blasted wasteland.

        • Tunnelvision [they/them]
          ·
          10 months ago

          I’m sure parts of it are still blasted waste. A lot of industrial buildings were in Mariupol and I’m sure they will take time to rebuild, but it is crazy how quickly apartments and shit have gone up. If my town was obliterated by world war 3 I would expect to live amongst rubble for 20 years at least.

          • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            10 months ago

            Apparently it also wasn't even as much destroyed as west and Ukraine said, fights were not heavy everywhere and it's a big city, half million inhabitants before war.

          • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
            ·
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            After some searching i need to correct myself, they are quiet on that after half of 2023, earlier they screamed at first so much about "no rebuild", then it was "shit rebuid" then it was "Russification of a city though rebuild". Frantic seeting, coping and malding, then silence.

            Hard to search anything that isn't RFE or Ukro propaganda on the topic, but there is video from year ago showing significant progress.

            Also WSJ indirectly admitting rebuilding goes so well that "Putin uses it as propaganda"

            • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
              ·
              10 months ago

              rat-salute

              Also WSJ indirectly admitting rebuilding goes so well that "Putin uses it as propaganda"

              parenti

          • Kaplya
            ·
            edit-2
            10 months ago

            Interestingly there are a number of Youtube channels that have documented the changes in Mariupol since its liberation in May 2022.

            This channel here is the one I follow the most because it is run by volunteers delivering aid to the residents there, and most importantly, documents the personal stories and experiences they had encountered throughout the war. Subtitles were auto-translated and not super accurate, but you can get a gist of what they’re saying. Warning: heart breaking stories everywhere, prepare to cry.

            Generally, the people who’ve had their homes destroyed get new apartments, while the others still have to wait. Note that the Ukrainian government barely built any new residential buildings since the collapse of the USSR, and most people were still living in Soviet-era apartments.

            From what I can understand, the re-housing program is prioritizing senior citizens (a lot of younger people who could afford to leave the city have already left, but many older people refused to leave), and rebuilding of the city is prioritizing on children’s wellbeing (building new schools, hospitals, nurseries first). The rest of the jobs are slowly coming back but it’s going to take a while.

    • Tunnelvision [they/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Will probably happen eventually. It’s extremely hard to not notice it at this point.

  • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]
    ·
    10 months ago

    "I narrowly survived the meatgrinder. When I finally got out it was a huge relief. Now I carry on my duties by feeding others into the meatgrinder in my stead."

  • Bloobish [comrade/them]
    ·
    10 months ago

    When you end up decimating an entire section of your population at the behest of western powers so that the treat machine still functions and some ghouls can buy former public utilities/properties on the cheap

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    10 months ago

    I want to be a soldier!

    does some fighting as a soldier

    fuck this, I'm going to be a recruiter

  • Awoo [she/her]
    ·
    10 months ago

    End of the article it says:

    Additional reporting by Anastasiia Levchenko and Paul Pradier

    I am 90% sure that if you were to dig into these two you'd find some sus nazi shit.

    • PaulSmackage [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      10 months ago

      Both keep pretty silent on social media, but for some odd reason Levchenko, a Ukrainian, follows Paul Gosar on Twitter? It's mostly BBC crew members, then all of a sudden, a republican rep.