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EESTI ELU reedel, 12. augustil 2022 — Friday, August 12, 2022
English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
Morale as a major determinant in Ukraine ‘Esprit de corps’ is the term often used within the military to describe the morale of one’s own troops. There’s a positive ring to it and denotes a confidence in victory. Readers of military ‘morale’ accounts of soldiers in battle, expect emotionally detached stories of the genuine mental fortitude of the fighters. The most recent assessment of British intelligence see low morale on both sides as a detri ment in maintaining a winning war effort. But the analysis concludes that Russians are more acutely debilitated from a low fighting spirit than Ukrainians. Reports of entire Russian units refusing to obey orders are not un common. During the Russian troop build-up prior to their February assault, morale was predicted to be the determining factor in the win-defeat end of hostilities. Two levels of morale were identified: the morale of indi vidual soldiers and the morale of each country and its people. At the level of an individual are Ukrainian soldiers, who purposefully fight for their homeland, superior to Russian soldiers whose motivation for fighting is fuzzy? For the collective nation, does the Ukrainian national will to defy an enemy for a long, difficult and deadly battle have more endurance than the morale of the Russian nation? Before the war started, many observers agreed that the longer the Ukrainian army was able to resist the enemy, the more it will gain in confidence and improve its knowhow of the best means to fight this adver sary. Coupled with this would be the heightened respect from the international community wit nessing a David-Goliath battle in which the underdog’s spirited defiance may even lead to victory. This could translate into enhanced international support in many sectors. A drawn-out conflict for Russia was predicted to have a negative influence on morale. It was stated that over time, the rise in casualties would erode Russian military as well as public morale.
The brutal hazing of draftees was seen as a major factor in damaging unit cohesion. Over one third of the standing army are conscripts serving alongside career soldiers, the ‘kontrakt niki’. The abuse of conscripts includes violence, sometimes even murder, and units suffering heavy casualties need imme diate replacements from re serves of draftees, with minimal training. This in itself en genders diminished morale at the front line as well as home. Recent Western intelligence indicates morale deteriorating on both sides. Official press reports from any war-time government are likely a distor tion of the facts. But with hundreds of journalists embed ded with Ukrainian units, re porting uncensored what they witness, it’s easy to separate Putin’s false claims from moderately self-serving state ments of Ukrainian press officers. The loss of morale on the Russian side far exceeds Ukraine’s. While both sides have had incidents of deser tions, entire Russian units have refused to obey orders from superiors. These have included armed standoffs with those in command. Driving Russian soldiers to these extremes are said to be low pay, combat stress, in capable leadership and heavy casualties. While the authentic number of dead is held secret, most experts say Russian losses have been in the tens of thou sands, in fact some indicate more than 75,000 dead. Also forcing the drop in morale is the confusion, among all ranks, about the objectives of the invasion. Putin still in sists that Russia’s invasion was aimed to ‘de-nazify’ the Ukrainian government and re store order to a country ‘under control of the West’. The Russian population has also shifted its backing of the Kremlin’s agenda. Taking Ukrainian intelligence sources at face value, in late July, a secret opinion poll commis sioned exclusive for the Kremlin showed a dramatic drop of support for the war. Only 39% of respondents agreed with continuing the war at any cost; 25% agreed under
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CEEC calls for resignation of Amnesty International Secretary General, Agnes Callamard August 9, 2022 TORONTO – The Central and Eastern European Council of Canada, represent ing the interests of 4.5 million Canadians of Central and Eastern European heritage, calls on Amnesty Inter national and Amnesty Canada to retract their recent report which justifies Russian war crimes against Ukraine and echoes Russian propaganda and disinformation narrative, and for the resignation of Secretary General Agnes Callamard. The report published by Amnesty International, titled “Ukrainian fighting tactics en danger civilians” claims that Ukrainian forces “have put civilians in harm’s way by es tablishing bases and operating weapons systems in populated residential areas.” The report fails to recognize that Ukrainian forces are required to be sta tioned inside urban areas under threat of Russian attack in order to defend them. The residents of villages, towns and cities in Central, Eastern and Southern Urkaine have endured shelling, arbitrary arrest, torture, system atic sexual violence and mass murder by invading Russian forces for the past six months – regardless of whether Ukrainian armed forces have been present or not. Using the twisted logic applied to this Amnesty report, the mere existence of Ukraine as a sovereign nation would be blamed for inviting invasion by Russian forces, and the pres ence of Ukrainian women in villages and towns occupied by Russian forces would be blamed for inviting sexual vio lence by Russian soldiers. Canadians expect Amnesty International to hold authori tarian regimes that engage in mass human rights and war crimes to account, not to justify them. The failure of Amnesty International to address the
certain conditions; 28% do not know how to answer; and the rest oppose the war. This compares with polling results in March which showed that some 70–80% of Russians support the war. One must note that the Kremlin’s secret poll does not coincide with the recent Levada Centre’s release of survey re sults which indicate that 71% of Russians still support the war. Levada has never been known as tool of the Kremlin’s mis information campaign. Have things changed? The Russians are not capable
The Seedrioru summer camp has always emphasized the importance of our Estonian cultural heritage for our youngsters, nearly all of whom have been born in Canada. The intricacy of our folk dress, with its multi-colored design, is an aspect that shows great richness and variety. Rather than individually weaving multiple small braids, the children, in a group, hand-wove a giant braid this summer. The super-large scale of this will surely be long- remembered. Photo: Merike Koger
concerns of local staff about flaws within the report has led to the resignation of the head of Amnesty’s Ukraine chapter, Oksana Pokalchuk.
Russian human rights abuse, Amnesty International has done more to enable Russian viola tions of human rights and war crimes than to deter them.
The Amnesty report has been exploited by Russian govern ment propagandists to justify its attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure citing it “as proof that Ukraine was using civilians as human shields.”
The CEEC calls on Amnesty Canada to publicly reject Am nesty’s report and to impose mandatory training for its staff about the nature of Russian i nformation and influence operations, and those under taken by other unlawful authoritarian regimes.
This is not the first time Amnesty International has assisted Russia’s authoritarian government. In 2021, it re moved Russian anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny, who had been poisoned and im prisoned by Russian authorities, from its list of political prisoners. Amnesty’s inexplicable down grading of Navalny’s status represented a major victory for Vladimir Putin. Despite apolo gizing for turning a blind eye to
of smothering nationalism – witness Chechnya, Afghanistan, in fact nearly all of the post- Soviet-occupied SSRs who are now sovereign nations. Scholars point out from research on Ukrainians resisting the Russian invasion of the Donbas since 2014, that the Ukrainian mili tary and population, have a greater will to win than Russia and the Russian-backed forces in the region. The fact that Ukrainians have for eight years cannot be ignored. This re inforces the notion that Ukrainians have deep feelings for a Ukrainian identity. This is
All war crimes require our attention, regardless of who has committed them. The growing list of atrocities committed by Russia’s invading forces must be investigated and their perpetrators must be brought to justice. Any justification of Russian human rights abuse and war crimes – whether inadver tent, indirect or unintended – amounts to denialism.
fundamental for sustaining high morale. It’s been a decisive factor in fending off battle fatigue for Ukraine. For the West, a Ukraine that shows such valiant determina tion to fight for itself is worth supporting. They need our continued support now. LAAS LEIVAT
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