I haven’t landed at a position on it either, but I could definitely see how if people understood they had to pay at least some portion of the rescue costs, they will try to be more educated and prepared when venturing out into the wild/at sea. Its extremely important to take this stuff seriously and too many people already treat nature like a joke and get themselves in terrible situations cause they just know a helicopter can come pick them up*

If only we could know with absolute fact the casualties/equipment losses from both sides with absolute accuracy. No doubt AFU reported numbers are just as inflated as Russian MoD reports.

Or it’s just prudent to over prepare, better safe than sorry.