Here's an example of me talking about these things years ago (from one thread, I do miss modding CombatFootage):
Donetsk in general gave me a lot of deja vu, including the Ukrainian authorities' use of the very same Soviet jargon ("terrorist band formations" for the enemy, "Anti-Terrorist Operation" ATO for the war), also thing like armored columns being stopped by civilans early in the conflict. I'm happy it never descended into anything really ugly there and human losses were also limited to only about 10,000 killed or so. https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/7bpfy2/comment/dpkdd6a/
It was eerily like that - government buildings and the police and military bases being taken over by at first mostly unarmed mobs of revolutionaries, crowds of babushkas turning back armored columns, releasing POWs to moms, the "ATO" and other Soviet style talk including fantasy casualty figures from the government, all the talk about the troops "coming to our land" by rebels, the Soviet style "hero fortress city" of Slavyansk just like Grozny or the "eternal fortress" Bamut, rampant religious iconography (including, to quote, "Orthodox Jihad"), strange political leaders and eccentric warlords with confused and confusing ideologies, foreign fighters, and so forth. Even https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br2e9b5wn80 was like one story just like that in Chechnya (except social media of course). There were even hundreds of Chechens involed (on both sides) to keep things even more familiar. Also "Polish snipers and American mercenaries" (supposedly working for Ukrainians) replaced the old "Baltic female snipers and negro mercenaries" in the Russian dread fantasies. As I said, it didn't really escalate and the destruction and death toll have been kept quite limited.
There were only isolated cases of wanton brutality, like with the Ukrainian unit Tornado being literally criminals (as in ex-cons recruited by an ex-con through corruption) and behaving accordingly. https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-tornado-battalion-rogue-paramilitaries-kyiv-trial-crimes/28205795.html On the separatist/Russian side there were also similar isolated cases like Batman Battalion or the psycho Nazis of Rusich Company. In the winter 2015 most of shelling of populated areas was actually against the Ukrainian positions in Debaltsevo in particular. https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/7bpfy2/comment/dpl1cj6/
Now, your links (that you can't provide, I know). Either the links, or the thread about who and how filled you so much. It will be a cautionary thread for the others like you.
Here's an example of me talking about these things years ago (from one thread, I do miss modding CombatFootage):
Donetsk in general gave me a lot of deja vu, including the Ukrainian authorities' use of the very same Soviet jargon ("terrorist band formations" for the enemy, "Anti-Terrorist Operation" ATO for the war), also thing like armored columns being stopped by civilans early in the conflict. I'm happy it never descended into anything really ugly there and human losses were also limited to only about 10,000 killed or so. https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/7bpfy2/comment/dpkdd6a/
It was eerily like that - government buildings and the police and military bases being taken over by at first mostly unarmed mobs of revolutionaries, crowds of babushkas turning back armored columns, releasing POWs to moms, the "ATO" and other Soviet style talk including fantasy casualty figures from the government, all the talk about the troops "coming to our land" by rebels, the Soviet style "hero fortress city" of Slavyansk just like Grozny or the "eternal fortress" Bamut, rampant religious iconography (including, to quote, "Orthodox Jihad"), strange political leaders and eccentric warlords with confused and confusing ideologies, foreign fighters, and so forth. Even https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br2e9b5wn80 was like one story just like that in Chechnya (except social media of course). There were even hundreds of Chechens involed (on both sides) to keep things even more familiar. Also "Polish snipers and American mercenaries" (supposedly working for Ukrainians) replaced the old "Baltic female snipers and negro mercenaries" in the Russian dread fantasies. As I said, it didn't really escalate and the destruction and death toll have been kept quite limited. https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/7bpfy2/comment/dpl1cj6/
Now, your links (that you can't provide, I know). Either the links, or the thread about who and how filled you so much. It will be a cautionary thread for the others like you.
Here's an example of me talking about these things years ago (from one thread, I do miss modding CombatFootage):
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/7bpfy2/comment/dpkdd6a/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/7bpfy2/comment/dpl1cj6/
Now, your links (that you can't provide, I know). Either the links, or the thread about who and how filled you so much. It will be a cautionary thread for the others like you.