this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025

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124

A Canadian combat medic in Ukraine: ‘I looked at my children and thought I had to do something’ (english.elpais.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Hotznplotzn@lemmy.sdf.org to c/canada@lemmy.ca

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/24587194

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April Huggett traded her life as a homemaker in Canada for the trenches of Ukraine to defend democracy and freedom against Russia’s expansionist ambitions

Until 2022, April Huggett’s life revolved around caring for her three children, then aged two, seven, and 11. The Russian invasion of Ukraine shook her so much that she decided to trade that life as a homemaker for the trenches and daily bombings on the Donetsk front, one of the most active of the war, to defend democracy and the free world where she was born against the expansionist threat of Russia. “After the Bucha massacre, it was really hard for me to move on. It was so similar to World War II... I looked at my children and thought I had to do something,” she recalls at the foot of a trench in a Donbas forest, where she is training with her comrades from the Alcatraz Battalion. Huggett, 36, wasn’t content with being a volunteer; she enlisted and, since December 2024, has served as a combat medic for this battalion, part of the 93rd Kholodny Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade and made up exclusively of ex-convicts who took up a government offer of sentence reductions to fight on the front lines. Huggett disinfects the finger of a recruit who has just cut himself on a tool and says: “These people are my family. They are my friends.”

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[–] vga@sopuli.xyz 10 points 6 days ago

I mean she's brave and all but as a parent the first reaction to that headline for me was "Yeah, I get it, being with children sucks"

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Awesome that you help and such but if you have three young children that depend on you and need you, what the hell are you doing in a warzone?

Something is missing in this story

[–] Wolverdiddlyino@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Only your sense of moral duty. Her kids will be just fine in Canada.

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago

"Fine" is pretty relative when your mother rather dies in a faraway war than take care of you

[–] rxbudian@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 days ago

We may need to recall her if US invades...

[–] ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 29 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Damn, imagine your mother telling you she'd prefer being in a warzone than raising you.

Edit: did you guys not read the article? She says her family doesn't support her decision and that her unit is now her new family. This isn't a feel good story at all.

[–] athairmor@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, if this was a Ukrainian or her kids were grown, I would understand. But, she has young kids who need her and probably can’t even begin to understand the situation in Ukraine.

If this were my spouse, I’d divorce and begin looking for another mother for the kids. I don’t know any mothers or fathers that would leave young children for a foreign war.

[+] rekabis@lemmy.ca -7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

she has young kids who need her

Need her? Yes. Require her? Not so much.

In many multiple studies across hundreds of thousands of single-parent households, it was discovered that a missing father produced about 98% of so-called “problem teens”, that engaged in crimes, drug use, teenage pregnancies, and many other issues. Many of these children also went on to have significant difficulties remaining in stable adult relationships.

There was no corresponding issues with missing mothers. Like, literally zero negative aggregate effect was seen across single-parent households that had a father, vs normal two-parent households.

Those kids will likely be perfectly fine.

[–] mearce@programming.dev 7 points 1 week ago

Could this have something to do with the circumstances that lead to a single-parent household?

Theres lots of ways for a father figure to not be associated with a child, to have much less expectation from society to step in. Giving birth to a child, its not really ambiguous that you are indeed the mother. I think its harder to create a single parent household where theres only a father figure, fathers can disappear or never be known (Mothers can too, I know). Did the study account for single-parent households with a father figure being more likely to exist because a father figure more often has a "choice" in continuing to raise the child, and that decision is indicative of their felt responsibility and might be made with respect to their financial ability?

I guess what I'm asking is, was this study controlled for income, familial support, etc?

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious as to the details and if the correlation is really just whether it's a male father figure?

[–] brrt@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Imagine telling your children you were willing and able to help those less fortunate than you but chose not to.

And I’m pretty sure she’d prefer not to have to be in that position.

Where do you draw the line who is worthy of helping? Your family? Your neighbors? Your city?…

Or is it solely because she’s a woman and expected to take care of the children? Would it be different if her husband was in the army and was sent to help?

What about doctors who help in foreign countries under heightened risk? What about firefighters helping everywhere they can?

[–] yunxiaoli@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

She has a fucking two year old. She not only had no obligation to help (unlike literally all of your examples) she had ample reason not to.

She ran away from her family like a coward to get out of dealing with them, to play soldier and be used as a bad PR piece.

If she'd prefer not to be in that situation, she had every ability not to be, instead she could've been a parent to her kids, instead of daddy's first wife.

[–] brrt@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

no obligation to help (unlike literally all of your examples)

How are my other examples obligated to help? They can find a different occupation if they have children that would lose a parent if something happened while they were on the job.

She ran away from her family like a coward to get out of dealing with them, to play soldier and be used as a bad PR piece.

You know that how? Did she say so? Or is it your interpretation of her situation?

If she'd prefer not to be in that situation, she had every ability not to be

Oh yeah, it’s super easy to get out of a moral dilemma. Sorry, must’ve slipped my mind.

[–] yunxiaoli@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Their profession obligated them to do something dangerous in exchange for money and financial security; this person does not receive that in exchange. Changing jobs is also not something you do lightly when you have kids, unless you're already well off enough to retire or will be homeless anyway.

Her family disapproves of her choice, that alone explains the situation as this adult acting as a petulant child that ran away. Her family wanted her in their lives, she didn't want them in her life. That is the situation being reported on in this and other articles.

There is no reasonable moral dilemma. For example, why the fuck didn't she go off to Niger? Why not volunteer for myanmar's resistance? Maybe be a un peace keeper in haiti? Shit you think ukraine is bad, why didn't she volunteer for palestine and join any of the hundreds of resistance groups?

There are hundreds of wars and conflicts going on right now. Is she going to go full mercenary and volunteer to be superwoman and intervene in all of them? Or did she pick a relatively safe conflict that would give her the most attention with the least amount of danger that would net her an easy path to leaving her family forever?

[+] pedz@lemmy.ca -7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Source: from Tom Gauld on Twitter

I know it's more complicated than that but this post gives me this kind of vibes. The soldiers invading on the other side are being told the same thing and are willing to kill others for the same reasons. How noble their sacrifice is! All soldiers! Thanks for fighting amongst yourselves and doing little bits of "collateral damage" in order to save your country from the barbarians.

If the US ever invades my country and I somehow need to kill Americans, I won't be a fucking hero, I'll be a murderer, just like them. It's nothing to be praised. Even if I just help others "defending" my country using my tech skills, it'll still be helping to murder others. I really really can't understand doing that willingly. If you have to, yes. But those doing this willingly are also those willing to invade other countries and take the lives of others based on what they see on their side. Again, nothing to be praised.

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

TIL resistance fighters are equivalent of dictatorial murder squads.

Like really, wtf? Violence and murders are not all the same.

[–] pedz@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, the brave Canadian resistance fighters that defended Canada in Afghanistan. Or the brave heroic American resistance fighters that defended the US from the invading Iraqis, by killing and torturing thousands of civilians. So noble. Thanks for their service.

[–] sudneo@lemm.ee 1 points 6 days ago

If the US ever invades my country and I somehow need to kill Americans, I won't be a fucking hero, I'll be a murderer, just like them. It's nothing to be praised. Even if I just help others "defending" my country using my tech skills, it'll still be helping to murder others. I really really can't understand doing that willingly

This was your example. It's a completely different argument, in which you compared invading and mounting a resistance to an invasion. I get your argument, but it's absolutely arbitrary that those willing to defend are the same willing to.invade, historically that is completely false in fact.

[–] Wolverdiddlyino@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Holy shit no. No. There’s a difference between invader and defender. They are different things.