The Ukrainian military in Azovstal has made it clear that they are ready to fight to the last, and this phenomenon of stability can be compared only with the Spartans in Thermopylae.
Remember Azovstal! Soon, such phrases will play the same role in Ukraine's heroic defense against Russia as the slogan “Remember the Alamo.” Azovstal is a giant metallurgical plant in Mariupol, a city that the Russian army, trying to conquer, actually destroyed. At this plant, several thousand Ukrainian soldiers and a small group of civilians are under constant Russian bombing and attacks.
This week, they ignored Russia's ultimatum to surrender or be destroyed, writes Andreas Klut, former editor-in-chief of Handelsblatt, Bloomberg. In a video address, one of the commanders of the defenders of Mariupol called on world leaders to organize a “withdrawal procedure” to take soldiers and civilians to a safe third country. Such an evacuation would be reminiscent of a similar operation in Dunkirk in 1940, when the Allies rescued their own soldiers from the Germans. But it is unlikely. “
” It is more likely that Azovstal's defenders will have to decide their own destiny. Surrender is not an option, and they made it clear. Their chosen way out seems to be to die for their country in this latest redoubt, “the article reads.
Like heroism in general, such unwavering courage is found only in the past, in legends or even myths, when a valiant defeat makes further victory even more dramatic. In the Alamo in 1836, Mexicans surrounded and killed Texans defending their garrison. But anger over their atrocities forced other Texans to defeat the Mexicans over the next month. The result was the Republic of Texas. Something even bigger happened in 480 BC, when King Xerxes led his giant Persian army to a narrow mountain pass in Thermopylae to attack and conquer Greek city-states. A small army of 300 Spartans defended the passage for three days until they were betrayed. All the Spartans died. But they slowed the Persian offensive. By the end of the year, the Greeks had won the war.
Read also: Ukraine demands from Russia an urgent humanitarian corridor from Azovstal
When soldiers give their lives, of course, they are always afraid that their sacrifice may be in vain. This uncertainty gives their struggle a more sublime and poetic meaning. She becomes disobedient for her own sake. This is exactly what happened in 74 AD, when a group of Jewish defenders defended Masada, a fortress on a slope near the Dead Sea, from Roman troops. According to Roman historians, 960 men, women and children committed suicide but did not surrender. In 1877, the samurai army did virtually the same thing.
Sometimes the only motive for the battle to the last is loyalty to one's fellow human beings. The Song of the Nibelungs ends with the Huns killing the Burgundian knights who were their masters. Not self-defense, but murder, revenge and betrayal led them to this point. But they fought together and died. When the Germans needed history during World War II to glorify the defeat at Stalingrad, they turned to this epic. Hermann Goering compared the death of the Wehrmacht's 6th Army to the death agony of the Nibelungs. The main propagandist, Josef Goebbels, tried to turn Stalingrad into a new legend in which the Germans “fought to the last bullet and died so that Germany could live.” Of course, all this was a bold lie. The Third Reich did not survive. And the Germans did not fight “to the last bullet”. And unlike the ancient Spartans, they died not because they volunteered to fight to the last, defending their country. They died because their evil regime sacrificed them in the war for extermination and enslavement.
The author also reminds that the Kremlin is also trying to play to glorify its aggression. He promotes the fabrication that he had to attack Ukraine to “denazify” it. This is a complete delusion. Ukraine is a pro-Western democracy with a president of Jewish descent. But for the Russian audience, these stories may seem real. Because among the defenders of Mariupol are fighters of the Azov Battalion, who were previously accused of nationalism. So the nobility of those who fight to the last depends largely on who looks at them. But despite this, Azovstal still resembles the Spartans in Thermopylae. Both battles play a strategic role. If Thermopylae was the gateway to the conquest of Greece, Mariupol is on the way to the land connection between Crimea and Donbass, which Russia occupied earlier. >
Regardless of the specific circumstances, for those of us who deal with completely banal situations in life, the battle to the last remains a mystery. What motivates men and women to oppose a numerically greater force, going to certain death? Perhaps they are driven by a primary instinct to fight injustice, even if it is the only way to force the enemy to pay the highest possible price. Instinct may whisper, “If the cost of our lives is too high, our enemies will think twice about whether to contact us.”
Ukrainians in Azovstal are fighting for each other, for their country and for history. Perhaps, like the rebellious samurai and all who were before them, they are fighting their battle only because, by the whim of fate, they are in a particular place at a particular time. And if they die, only on their own terms, with honor.
See the special topic: More than half of Swedes support the country's accession to NATO Approval of the course in NATO, Sweden's population will grow to 64 percent if Finland joins the Alliance. Why Putin canceled the assault on Azovstal The Kremlin suddenly called the operation “inexpedient.” In the village near Mariupol, the Russian military could bury 3 to 9 thousand citizens – the City Council This is indicated by a comparison with satellite images of a mass grave in Bucha. Business has asked the authorities to make 20 critical changes to wartime deregulation Some changes are being asked to remain after the war. Martial law in Ukraine: what rights and responsibilities citizens have All the most important things about martial law
