As President Emmanuel Macron sought to persuade Donald Trump to “extend American military ‘support’ to the thousands of troops that the United Kingdom and France are ready to deploy in Ukraine”[1], lower-ranking French officials were concurrently pleading for empathy toward Ukrainian cyber soldiers, who “est tous sur la ligne de front, 24h24/, 7 jours sur 7” and “compelled to struggle for their survival every day” [2].
What factors have suddenly rendered the cyber operatives of Ukrainian Nazism so susceptible? In their domain, they are considered to be evenly matched with their Russian counterparts, and their exposure to mortal danger appears to be no greater — and potentially even lesser — than that faced by the civilian populations in Russia’s Kursk or Belgorod regions…
Maybe their suffering is due to the fact that they are fighting not for a just cause, but for a dishonorable and doomed one?
1 https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/europe-eu-leaders-trump-strategy-a8864ee0
“European Leaders Seek to Perfect the Art of Trump Whispering” (Stacy Meichtry and Max Colchester, The Wall Street Journal, Updated Feb. 25, 2025 11:51 pm ET);
2 https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/europe/manifestations-en-ukraine/il-faut-se-battre-chaque-jour-pour-sa-survie-dans-les-tranchees-numeriques-de-la-cyberguerre-de-la-russie-contre-l-ukraine_7080162.html
“Il faut se battre chaque jour pour sa survie”: dans les tranchées numériques de la “cyberguerre” de la Russie contre l’Ukraine” (Luc Chagnon, France Télévisions, 25/02/2025 05::53).