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Truth: You see brave Ukrainians preparing to defend their cities after answering the call of their leaders.

Also truth: You see the Ukrainian government encouraging non-combatants - the elderly, women and even children - to become combatants, eventually to be the victims of trained(ish) opponents and corpse photos on the nightly news.

Propaganda is a weapon - realize that weapon is aimed at you, the consumer.

So... As an American, and with our wonderful Second Amendment which can essentially allow civilians to step up during foreign invasion, you would expect the civilian populace to do nothing at all if the same were to happen here? Really? I mean, I assume this parallel stands. Russia is quite a foe, especially to Ukrainians who have seen that shadow looming over them for some time.

Most of Ukraine's women, children, and men physically incapable of fighting have fled west already. What remains are those who want to fight, and who are doing what they can. Civikians stelling up in such a manner is a morale boost for their military, and a morale debuff for enemy combatants, who don't even know WTF they're doing in the first place.

"I’m a retired Army lieutenant colonel—an intelligence officer. My training, from 1983 to 2007, was a Cold War focus on the old Soviet Union, the predecessor state to the Russian Federation. Never in my time as an intelligence officer was I able to see the worst-case scenario of a large-scale conventional Russian attack in Europe—until now.

I’ve seen multiple reports of Russian conscripts who didn’t know they were invading Ukraine. They’re confused. They don’t know who to shoot at, as “Ukrainians look the same as us.” The Russian force appears to suffer from: Poor training; poor leadership (bad officers); and a cultural disregard for information-sharing down the chain of command, which prevents lower-ranking soldiers from making informed decisions in the chaos of war.

The result of all this is a lack of initiative from soldiers when non-commissioned officers and officers are killed or wounded." - As Europe Rallies To Ukraine, Putin Rattles His Nukes