James Onen aka Fatboy has opined that recruiting Ukrainian civilians to fight against the Russian army is putting Ukrainian lives at danger even with the knowledge that their participation will not help.
He said this after the former Miss Ukraine Anastasia Lenna decided to join the Ukrainian forces to protect her motherland against the Russian invasion.
The beauty queen was appealing to a call made by President Volodymr Zelensky’s citizens to rise and defend their homeland. Lenna, who represented Ukraine in a 2015 international beauty contest, shared photos on her Instagram while holding an assault rifle and military gear with the caption, “Anyone who crosses the Ukrainian borders with an intent to invade will be killed.”
Commenting on this, Fatboy said, “I understand that it’s from a purely nationalistic standpoint where you want everyone to fight to their last in defence of their country but don’t you think that its almost self-defeating especially when fighting against an enemy you know is much stronger and can overpower you?”
He further gave reference to Japan in the second World War saying that the fighters, despite being fully aware that they stood no chance against the US, opted to at least crash their planes into American warships without surrendering. “So what I am saying is, doesn’t this end up becoming self-defeating? Because when the dust settles and you’ve lost the war, all those lives lost would be for what?” he questioned.
In response, his Co-host Olive Najjuma said that people’s solidarity would imply that at least their country’s annexation didn’t happen without a fight. “Ukraine has the will but Russia has the might. Russia has over 900,000 troops and Ukraine has 200,000. So right now every number and person that can join counts,” she asserted.
However Fatboy insisted, saying that his point is at the end of the day, Ukraine is sacrificing poor civilians because Russia is after the leaders of Ukraine, and not its people.
On the contrary, Olive countered his statement saying that although Russia claims that the aggression is not targeting citizens, they will definitely be collateral damage. “You can't just surrender because you don’t want to be remembered as a country that was ordered by Russia to back down and you did! You’ll be remembered as cowards. Their spirit of nationalism is driving them to fight. You might think that this is a big boy’s play that the Ukrainian government is putting its people’s lives at risk but that’s what the people are choosing,” Olive emphasized.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.