It is not about "flush toilet", is about having a nice, expensive ceramic toilet, which could upgrade a typical "hole in the floor" style lavatory, common to many villages.
about having a nice, expensive ceramic toilet, which could upgrade a typical "hole in the floor"
Obviously that is perfectly reasonable and no doubt happens. However the original comment was about "soldiers stole their toilet seats to take home because they could not imagine the magic of flush toilets." That I do not believe.
I know the Ukrainian language and I know the context, I've heard the stories (about marauders). "soldiers stole their toilet seats to take home because they could not imagine the magic of flush toilets." — this is just an issue of mistranslation/signal noise:
1) Flush toilet systems are uncommon in poor parts of rural Russia, where a good chunk of their contract soldiers are from. Having proper plumbing for your private house (not an apartment, where the infrastructure is done by the state) is very expensive. That is why soldiers were genuinely surprised to see them in Ukrainian villages. Also, note that Russian propaganda always portrays Ukraine as extremely poor.
2) Expensive ceramic toilet is as good target for marauding as any.
Ceramic toilet weighs maybe 20kg and costs $300. It is also huge. Can't imagine anyone stealing a ceramic toilet of all things. If anything, people coming from rural areas have much better grip of what physical things really worth than us megapolis dwellers.
But $300 could be more than those guys make in month in peace time, literally.
In most of Russia’s regions median (!) salary is closer to 350 US dollars, and that’s before war. Minimum wage is around 100 dollars (not sure if there are many people on min. wage, but still..)
There were reports from Belarus that one guy sent some 440 kilos of “presents” to his family in Russia.
Obviously that is perfectly reasonable and no doubt happens. However the original comment was about "soldiers stole their toilet seats to take home because they could not imagine the magic of flush toilets." That I do not believe.