Would you stay & Fight?

[ragged]

If you lived in Ukraine, I mean.

Pretend you had the basic same home/family/job/skillset you do now, but in Kyiv today.

I think I'd try to figure out how to stay & fight & send the youngest DC away West with DH (who probably wouldn't want to stay & fight).

Your likely choice?

No, I'd leave but husband says he would fight.

As a couple if we didn't have kids, yes but with kids, no. My driving thought would be doing everything I could to get them out and safe.

I’m torn, because if everyone ran, eventually there’s be no one where to run to.

But I think dh and I are ultimately quite cowardly in that respect. We’d take all our money, transfer it overseas, and scram.

No, I'd leave as soon as I could with my DC (and I like to imagine we'd have left early enough so DH and adult DS could come with us). My parents left a war zone when I was a baby and built a new life in the West. They never had any loyalty or interest in returning to their home country, they were just glad for a better life for their family and relieved to get away (from the fighting, but also relative poverty).

Are people on here seriously saying they think they would get guns and knives and fight Russian boys and men to the death, almost definitely to their own death?! I find it incredibly unlikely when the majority of people on this website (me included) are too scared to even stay on the bus when they’ve already rung the bell? 😂

When threatened with bombs and death, most people want to save themselves and their families. Most normal people are not heroes,

Yes. I have had firearms training, so would be useful.

Fighters can only keep going with decent support. Somewhere to sleep, eat, rest and heal.

I am better off supporting a small group of good fighters with information and logistics than to engage in hand to hand combat myself. Having said that; if my DC were at risk, I would not hesitate to defend them.

I also find this thread slightly insensitive considering most of us have no idea what it’s like to live in a warzone and be terrified of near certain death.

Yes if it came down to it but definitely to provide medical assistance and support.

I would do the best I could.
I have weapons training so I know the right end of a rifle.

DH would very strongly want to stay and fight, he'd insist on it, and be better at it that me, so I'd get the children somewhere as safe as possible. But yes, absolutely one of us would fight, one would take the DC

I would leave and not fight. I would protect my family.

I would not kill Russian boys conscripted to the Russian army. You all realise they have no choice whether to fight or not & are aged between 18 & 27?.

My heart also goes out to all the Russian mothers with sons currently conscripted. Their deaths matter too.

Where's the diplomacy? This is all such macho bullshit in a world run by idiotic men. Convenient disaster capitalism on the heels of a pandemic & oh so predictable.

Nope take the kids and cats and run my ex can do the fighting

Out of anger i would stay and fight, I can't even look at putins face on my TV him and everyone standing by him is making my blood boil. My heart aches for all of Ukraine 🇺🇦 I wish their was something we could do to help and send putin to his place in hell.

@BiscuitLover3678

Are people on here seriously saying they think they would get guns and knives and fight Russian boys and men to the death, almost definitely to their own death?! I find it incredibly unlikely when the majority of people on this website (me included) are too scared to even stay on the bus when they’ve already rung the bell? 😂

When threatened with bombs and death, most people want to save themselves and their families. Most normal people are not heroes,

There is a wide audience on here including female Police, medics, fire officers, military for example none of those are adverse to dangerous situations at some point during their careers, I’m not sure I agree with you saving the majority of MN are scared souls.

Plus a lot of angry people who would certainly rise up to protect their families.

I'd do whatever I could to protect my kids and as I'm their most important person, myself too. That would most likely mean fleeing.
Before I had kids I would have 100% been the type of person to stay and fight.

Most but not all of us @BiscuitLover3678

It’s really up to the men to stay and fight. I would fight myself and do the best I could given I am an 8 stone 59 year old woman.
The Ukrainian’s are so brave it’s an inspiration.
I wonder how modern day British men would fare - given some of these threads I fear they will be insisting that women lead them to battle “because women want equality” or some such.

I would be looking for any way possible out of there with my children. If i couldn't get out of the country i would try and find the safest possible place to hide with them. I wouldn't be fighting, no.

I think I'd have to run away because I have small children - my husband would have to stay and fight. However, I'd love to wage a campaign of sabotage on my way out like SOE in world war two. Like mining bridges and blocking up gun barrels of tanks. And stealing street signs and leaving false intelligence trails. All the things that I have no idea currently how to do but I hate Vladimir Putin so, so much, I'd make an effort to learn asap.

No I bloody wouldnt. I would be escaping by any means necessary.
No glory in war

The truth is you don't know. I don't know. Every emergency and conflict shows us we don't know who we are until we are forced to find out.

I've been in a few very scary and dangerous situations at work. Fires, vicious assaults, life-threatening stuff. And what I've seen is that often the last person you'd think would be brave and effective is. The 17 yo joy rider steps up while the trained staff run and cry. Drug dealers defending women from assaults.

There was a passage in Schindler's List about a Jewish gangster who was the only one not to spit on a Torah when directed to by Nazis who he knew would immediately gun him down. That's never left me. That anyone can be brave or strong and anyone can do the right thing given the right situation. Or the wrong thing. Do I know I wouldn't grass someone up or collaborate to save myself or my children? I don't. And neither do you unless you've been in fear or torture, rape or death.

We should all just be very very happy we currently can't answer the question of whether we would fight. And hope very hard that we never find out.

I don’t think I would if it was a choice between that and escape. Although in reality we’d have nowhere to escape to so would probably end up under the new regime.