After the captives of Yasustaer Steel Plant, two American soldiers (as shown in the picture below) were captured in the Kharkiv War Zone. Are these foreign soldiers mercenary (the name of pro-Russian forces) or volunteer (the name of anti-Russian forces)? Let me talk about my opinion.
Some people say that the essential difference between volunteers and mercenaries is whether they make money. Volunteers do not receive wages, mercenaries receive wages to work. I object. For example, Bethune. Teacher Bai has subsidies in , Jinchaji, and special milk. He often gives his special milk to the injured to drink to supplement his nutrition. As a result, he himself was malnourished and died of sepsis due to a small wound. No one would say that Teacher Bai is a mercenary of , , right? Because if you stay in the university hospital of Montreal , the director of thoracic surgery earns much higher than that allowance. Therefore, people come to China not for money, but for their ideals. By the same token, Hemingway and Neruda are also volunteers in Spain.
Chennard 's Flying Tigers , is it a volunteer army? This is really hard to say. After 1942, they had the official US military number, the US Air Force Task Force in China. So in theory, it is just to be considered a US military, but to assist us in fighting on China's territory and provide them with supplies. What before 1942? The salary of ordinary pilots of the Flying Tigers is $600 (always paid by China), which is not only much higher than that of Chinese soldiers, but also twice that of US pilots of the same period. Therefore, although they are nominally volunteer soldiers, they should actually be the main component of volunteers, but they also have certain hiring components.
Next, let me talk about my personal judgment criteria for mercenaries. If the money he earns from going to a foreign war, including some benefits, is much higher than his income from working normally in his own country, then it can be judged that he is fighting for money and belongs to a mercenary. On the contrary, he is the volunteer army. Take the famous Blackwater company in the United States as an example. A well-trained soldier, who is not on the front line security tasks, such as a private bodyguard, will have a daily salary of no less than $800. If you really go to the battlefield, go to the battle in the tunnel of the Azostall Steel Factory, and your daily salary will not be less than $2,000. If you are disabled or die, there will be huge compensation. This is all just the money given to the warrior himself, not the commission you need to pay to the company. Have you seen it? This is the mercenary!
Gaddafi once recruited soldiers from the country of West African , and the salary was not paid so much. But he promised to give them Libyan nationality after the war - yes, the GDP, which is $7,000 per capita, makes those poor and heart-wrenching African brothers envious. So, they are also mercenaries.
The above discussions discuss the standards of mercenaries and do not involve any Ukrainian war situation. So, even if you don’t agree with my final conclusion, if you can agree with my point of view, I welcome it.
Next, let’s talk about whether foreign soldiers make a lot of money in Ukraine - this is the key to determining whether they are mercenaries or volunteers. Unfortunately, I have no direct evidence. But I think their food and weapons should be provided by the Ukrainian side, and there may be some pocket money, but this money is not much. There are three reasons:
1. The captured soldiers are in the hands of the Russian army, and they can learn the truth through interrogation. If the income is high, it is beneficial to our own war propaganda - our enemies fight for money, and we fight for justice. Unfortunately, they didn't say it.
2. Before the war, Ukraine per capita GDP was $3,000+, and it was firmly ranked as the deputy squad leader of Europe, losing all the face of Europeans.Do you think they can afford $2,000 per person per day’s salary? Maybe you would say that the old China was poorer, didn’t it pay the Flying Tigers’ wages? That's a pilot, okay? Ukraine is currently captured by ordinary infantry. Are they that extravagant?
3. Assuming Ukraine really has this money, buying a few cannons should improve its combat effectiveness much higher than hiring mercenaries, right?
Some people may think that Ukraine has no money, but the financial backer behind it is rich. Western countries will spend their own money to hire mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. My explanation is that war is business for Europe and the United States. The cost of hiring a mercenary is much higher than training a Ukrainian soldier who is willing to defend his country and provide him with weapons. The West can be bad, but they are not stupid and will not do business that loses money.
So, if you insist that they are mercenaries, I won’t argue with you. But they went to Ukraine for money to fight, but for the justice in their hearts - whether the justice they thought was really justice.
Whether it is the mercenary or the volunteer army, it does not affect how the Russian army treats them. Shooting them all will help prevent more foreigners from coming to Ukraine to participate in the war and stimulate the morale of the Russian army. But for the foreign soldiers who were already on the front line, they were more determined to fight to the death. Now that I want to be shot, I may just make a fuss, in order to increase my bargaining chips, I will exchange more benefits from Britain and the United States in the future. Which one is more beneficial? Let Putin calculate it yourself.
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