cleavers
Moderator
Knowing a fair bit about our military from my job, and our reactions to the possibility of it happening early on, they weren't sucked into doing it at all, it was all their own choices.
As far back as November 2021 it was signalled as "likely" in briefings we had. I heard this from wihin my job, and when I heard it, I was "bollocks that just won't happen". I was told at the time, by people who speak with people much higher up the military food chain than I do, that they were very worried about it, even then I still dismissed the possibility of putin being that "stupid".
We were put on 10 days "notice" to go back to working night shifts just before christmas, having not done so for 3 years, and I still thought it was "bollocks" (so far we haven't taken that step, though we are still on "notice").
In late Jan we were briefed that it was "imminent", and I still couldn't get my head round the idea it would actually happen.
I had 2 weeks holiday in early Feb, and by the end of it I was dreading going back to work, because I knew the extra work it would cause if it did.
On Feb 24th I got up, and thought FFS why ? In the early days I feared ww3 was inbound any day, and believe me, where I work when in office, that was not a very appealing prospect (as I'm sure it wasn't for most people who don't work where I do).
The events of the last 5 or 6 days, whilst great for Ukraine, and I'm delighted by them, still fill me with angst over what might happen. Lets hope some sense prevails in russia itself over the next few weeks, because "winning" this "special operation" failed in late Feb/early Mar, and it now looks like it could turn into a russian disaster over the next weeks, and that might turn bad for Europe.
