On February 24, 2022, the Russians invaded Ukraine in what has become Europe's largest ground war since WW2.

Ukraine and Russia

There are Ukrainians and Russians in several branches of J2b-L283.

The deaths of our relatives from this conflict, not only a tragedy in and of itself, will set back the research into the origins of the lineages that may have migrated through this area, from one direction or another.

We think that our J2b-L283 ancestors may have first migrated from east (around the North Caucasus from a homeland perhaps originally around the Zagros Mountains) to west, then later migrations may have taken certain lineages back to the east.

Mariupol

The Russians have killed thousands of those they claimed to have been protecting in the first place, the Russian-speakers of Ukraine, by leveling Russian-speaking Mariupol and creating a humanitarian disaster there.

The pro-Russian parties of Ukraine (not occupied before Feb 24) no longer want to be part of Russia now that they see how Russia treats its brothers and sisters - even how it sends its own men without proper training or equipment or realistic battle plan or logistics into a meat grinder.

It is not clear how this conflict will end but it appears that the Russians are determined to take this city regardless of the cost of human life from their side or the Ukrainians.

Mariupol was a center of Greeks in Ukraine, most of them I believe were formerly Pontic Greeks. No doubt part of that heritage, living and ancient, has been and is being destroyed. J2b-L283 isn't found in high concentrations in Greeks but Greek- or Dacian-mediated migration to Black Sea colonies are some of the possible vectors of migration of J2b-L283 to Azov coast.

Mordovia

Due to a founder effect, 10 of the 21 samples on the YFull tree from Mordovia are J2b-L283, specifically the branch J2b-Y12000 that is found in many Mishar Tatars, including nobility, and also in Mokshas, but generally absent among ethnic Russians.

This would exceed the rate of J2b-L283 in Albanians and Kosovar Albanians, though this figure computed from YFull samples alone may not be exact.

Apparently these men, along with all Mordovians, are in greater danger than other Russians from bigger cities to be sent to the meat grinder that is Ukraine.

According to Andrei Soldatov, founder and editor of the Agentura website which tracks Russia’s intelligence services, Putin has conscripted soldiers more heavily from the less populated regions of Russia. This is because he wants to avoid high concentrations of angry, grieving family members in the major cities, a lesson learned from the experience of the Chechen Wars.

Soldatov only mentioned two areas specifically by name, Mordovia as an example of Central Russia and Siberia, as regions that we see the overwhelming number of captives coming from.

So when the dead are finally counted, it is likely that these areas will see a disproportionately high number of deaths due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine compared to the bigger Russian cities.

You can listen to the interview of Andrei Soldatov on DW News, Conflict Zone with Tim Sebastian from March 29. DW News, a German public broadcast service, has since been blocked by Putin's censors, so I'm not sure if anyone in Russia can watch this interview or not.

Rosgvardia May Legally Refuse Orders to Invade Ukraine

If you have family or friends in Rosgvardia you can point them to the example of the 12 men in the Omon Police Special Unit's legal refusal to be deployed to Ukraine. They are suing the Russian government for wrongful dismissal.

"These people didn’t want to kill or be killed," Mikhail Benyash, the rebel unit’s lawyer, told Meduza.io.

"Also, the Omon has a different function. They don’t know how to shoot surface-to-air gun systems. They don’t drive tanks. What can they do against a regular army with a stick and a shield?"

Russian riot cops fired for refusing to invade Ukraine bring bosses to justice