Meat storms: The Battle of Stalingrad changed the course of World War II. The unspeakably brutal confrontation between invading Nazi forces and the Red Army lasted seven months, from August 1942 through the following February, culminating in a German retreat that, coupled with America’s entry in the war, turned the tide against Axis powers. It is still celebrated in Russia as the crowning achievement of what remains known as the Great Patriotic War. Glossed over is that many Red Army soldiers had no wish to fight. No wonder, since temperatures were often below zero and they had little food. But any troops that showed reluctance or tarried were summarily killed by the NKVD, Moscow’s doctrine police. In effect, you were dead if you fought and dead if you did not. In all, Stalingrad would claim between one and two million dead. I mention this because the BBC reported recently that it had interviewed former Russian soldiers who had fled the Ukraine conflict and they had said Russian officers at the front casually executed those who refused to march into enemy gunfire, so-called meat storms. The BBC report had the aroma of disbelief and disgust. Clearly, no one had read up on Russia’s recent military behavior and the Army’s traditional disinterest in casualties. In a wartime era largely dominated by drones and precision strikes, Russia still plays by old-school rules. Death at the front is a norm, as it is for Ukrainian troops. Both sides still reside in a dimension of battlefield horror the West can no longer fathom. Since neither side has the soldiers to overrun the other, the slaughter persists. For anyone interested in the legacy of trench warfare, here is its modern sibling, further proof, if any was needed, that enlightened battlefields are a lie.