Welcome to a bonus podcast episode from the Denison Forum.

Today's podcast episode is titled Russian troops surprised by Ukrainian robotic vacuums,

A Lesson in Warfare, Both Physical and Spiritual.

It's written by Mark Legg of the Denison Forum and narrated by Chris Elkins.

The war in Ukraine drags on into its sixth bloody month.

Instead of a swift Russian victory, as Putin expected, the conflict might continue for years.

From the beginning, Russian President Vladimir Putin has told the Russian people that the invasion

of Ukraine is merely a limited

special military operation. To sustain that deception, he wants to avoid a national draft. But Russia

is desperate for more manpower, so they have enticed new recruits with large paychecks,

focusing their attention on rural rural impoverished areas.

As Russian troops supposedly liberate Ukraine by shelling cities and occupying towns,

the low-income Russian soldiers loot houses in suburban areas.

Instead of finding a backward country in need of Russian rescue,

they find the Ukrainians more well off

and themselves. Testimony for this reality comes from an account given by Igor Fersov, a medic in the

Ukrainian military. He served on the Ukrainian parliament for two years and now serves on the front lines.

Fersov highlights in a New York Times piece, stories from civilians in once occupied territories.

In Bucca, a suburb outside of Kyiv, the Russian forces asked locals if they were already in Kyiv.

They couldn't believe that such idyllic parks and cottages could exist outside a capital.

The soldiers were confused that someone living alone could have a two-bathroom house.

Locals also apparently said that the Russians seemed perplexed by the robotic vacuum cleaners.

...