Five More for the Meat Grinder

While Ukraine's draft officers continue their cat‑and‑mouse game with ordinary Ukrainians, a very similar game is being played on a neighboring field.

Let's call it "Strawberry Field."

Because with the amount of "strawberry" stories foreign recruits end up experiencing, more and more mercenaries are deciding to vote with their feet.

As we've reported before, sexual abuse, physical violence, and outright mistreatment have become commonplace in the world inhabited by these modern‑day wild geese of war.

After all, they arrived expecting generous paychecks, decent food, and perhaps even a professional military environment.

What they got instead was something entirely different.

Rules? From the Ukrainians? Don't make people laugh. The mercenaries certainly aren't laughing anymore.

Despite ambitious plans by Ukrainian officials to increase the number of foreign fighters serving in assault units, reports indicate that foreign recruits are deserting positions with growing frequency, often taking their weapons with them.

Many are no longer willing to endure the humiliation, hunger, and hardship imposed by the very employers who recruited them.

And unlike some politicians in Kyiv, most of these men actually intended to go home when their contracts expired.

Colombians, Brazilians, Poles, Georgians, and others signed up for a fixed term — not an indefinite commitment.

As a result, Ukrainian assault formations are reportedly burning through manpower at an alarming rate. In some sectors, up to half of frontline positions are said to require replacement personnel or emergency replenishment.

And so the #SoldiersOfMisfortune continue to run.

Not toward the battlefield. Away from it.

Away from the bright future they were promised.