Russian authorities have chosen a bizarre way to express their gratitude to the mothers of soldiers killed in the war in Ukraine, gifting them meat grinders and flowers for International Women’s Day.

    • Lemmynated@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      Meatgrinder may not have the same military context in Russian?

      We can’t simply apply our English concepts to other cultures/languages.

      • Hubi@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        It does. For example the battle of Verdun was also called Верде́нская мясорубка (The meat grinder of Verdun)

  • altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Actual source on their social network: https://m.vk.com/wall-192159337_1072

    Small town, local mayor and representatives from the ruling party’s office. In the announcement they don’t append any meaning to it and don’t even write what they gifted in the OP. It’s obviously not getting coverage from government-controlled media and mostly discussed on the internet and posted in banned ones.

    Two takes that are completely possible and can even be true at the same time:

    1. It’s a fuck up of people who couldn’t connect the dots beforehand, like office clerks looking for cheaper or more useful kitchen tech (because women), probably without the whole context or a will to give a fuck. It had some probability with that amount of cases and therefore it finally occured.

    2. It’s an example of an extremely cynical humor that is close to cancerous soviet\russian prison and law enforcement culture, and that’s a usual occurence in the top admin, so it can trickle down to local offices too. What went over the head of the journos, is that there’s a derogatory eqivalent to the meatgrinder that’s popular with most war-themed TG channels - to call the battlefront a ‘vagina-cutter’, and it makes it look way more intentional as a gift to women on women’s day.

    I suspect a combination of two. The first one is the simpliest, most probable reason why it started. But I can’t tell if someone signing it into work didn’t got a whole dose of the second one as well. In the fight of ignorance and malice, I bet on ignorance, but I’m pretty unconfortable with how I often pick between these two nowadays.

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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    2 days ago

    That’s so fucked…

    “Thanks for sending your son to the meat grinder; we got you a souvenir!”

  • CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe
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    2 days ago

    Ultimate trolling move, but morally bankrupt. Any cleverness is lost by the sheer savagery, heartlessness.

    The meat grinders should be gathered up en masse, broken up for weaponization, & used as shrapnel in powerful bombs. Return to sender, because fuck that.

    • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      It’s even worse: They weren’t gifts to Ukrainian mothers, Russia gave them to their own.

      That’s far more fucked than a troll gift to ‘the enemy’.

      Took their sons, forced them into a figurative meat grinder for a needless war, then gave them literal meat grinders as souvenirs…

      • CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.cafe
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        2 days ago

        😱 Sick fucks. This is the American in me talking, but it sounds like damn near revolution time.

  • Retreaux@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    According to the articles, the officials said the gifts were provided based on the mother’s request. This is a statement by the mothers that the government then had to smile and do anyways because that’s what they requested.