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Ukrainians and Russians Have Knock-Out Close Range Brawl in Woods
Published 2 years ago
Helmet camera video taken from the perspective of a Ukrainian infantryman captures an intense tree-line gunfight between Ukrainian and Russian forces near Slovyansk.
It's easy to look at this video from an outsider's point of view and think about how effectively the Ukrainians are shooting, moving and communicating. It's easier still if you're someone who sees the conflict between Ukraine and Russia as purely black and white or good and evil. Here's the thing though, you're looking at a knock-out brawl between two groups of men. In this moment, not a single human being involved in this gunfight is interested in the politics of the conflict itself, or our individual opinions on the fight for life they're having in this random Ukrainian tree-line.
They're fighting for two things and two things only. Keeping themselves alive, and bringing the person next to them home alive. They aren't fighting for one old man's romantic belief of re-uniting the old Soviet Union. They're not fighting for the blue and yellow flag they're wearing on their shoulders either. This is two groups of young men who have been maneuvered to an unfamiliar tree line so that they can kill one another to control a piece of terrain. They're fighting for their own right to continue living past this moment in time.
When the gunfight is over, to a man, each individual survivor of this gunfight will be thinking of the why, for sure. It will matter to them for years to come. In the moments you're watching above however, the only thing that matters is surviving second to second in a primal reality contest that's going to end with one side going home upright, and the other side going home in zipped up black bags.
A real gunfight is hell on Earth. Don't let anything or anyone ever try to convince you otherwise.
