This is a quick diary, because I’m not really an expert on this topic, but I know it matters.
Back during the 1930’s, Stalin attempted genocide via famine against the people of Ukraine.
There’s some debate as to whether the famine was deliberate or just incompetence, as other areas of the USSR also suffered. At a minimum, the famine was made worse by government actions, such as seizing food. However, the Ukrainian government officially treats it as genocide, and as part of Ukrainian national mythos, the USSR trying to starve them all to death is a well-established trope.
Ukraine remembers the Holodomor annually on the 4th Saturday of November.
Why risk dying in war? Well, if the consequence of losing is death by starvation, maybe a bullet isn’t so bad. The more Putin acts like Stalin, the more the Ukrainians fear what he’ll do after the war.