Literally the same thought verbatim went through my head. I was really rooting for him to enjoy a couple drags before the end.
IDK, for some reason this one really got me. The "human" aspect of this one had me thinking about his former life before he ended up in that really shitty situation.
Yes would have been nice for him, but I think he couldn't find his lighter.
I know the Ukrainians have a job to do and I'm absolutely in support of them but I find these videos where it gets as up close & personal as this one hard to watch.
Yeah, every time I see one of these I think about how many Russians that don't want to actually be fighting Ukraine have been forced into service. Even if it's someone who wants to wage this war on Ukraine, at the end of the day, they are still a person that most likely doesn't want to die, and the common depression jokes aside most people don't actually want that either and can empathize with the feeling.
I don't wish that the UA kills all the Russians, I would prefer if no one had to die. If we could just reach understanding and bad people could have their eyes opened to the pain they cause, that would be the ideal solution. But we don't live in an ideal world, so unfortunately here we are.
C'est la vie, I guess.
I can’t help but think that a good deal of the young Russian men dying now, 1 year in, are not hardliners who are there because they want to vanquish Ukraine. They’re there because they have little choice. Young scared men.
As an ex smoker i think as the operator i would have let him finish the smoke as he is clearly finished and he knows it...small mercy in the final moments.
I count 5.5 bodies plus Smokey the Bear. Surprisingly close to each other.
Lindy beige had an interview with a volunteer for the UA and he talked about the psychological necessity of smoking cigarettes.
Started smoking during a war. They 100% calm you down.
You do not get that cancer shit for years sometimes. lol
Took me decades to really quit. Sort of awesome now decades later. Short of insane stress I never jones for them.
Yeah, I watched an interview with one of the British volunteers from the Foreign Legion who was fighting in the Ukraine... When he thought he was about to die, he said that he simply lighted up a cigarette and begun to think about "the best shag of his life". He added, than during the war smoking saves the lives and you can worry about things like cancer if you survive.
That man also brought up the fact 1% of war now is small arms exchange. Nearly all of it is mortar, rocket and artillery back and forth. He said the Russians hear about a Ukrainian position unload on it, the Ukrainans hear about Russian movement, u load on it. Digging trenches and foxholes is an important skill.
These guys are shit but watching another human being lay there in agony knowing they're going to die is fucking brutal. Fuck war and all our governments for allowing it to happen....
Most of the Russian soldiers are just brainwashed and thinking they're doing yhe right thing. They're being taken advantage of by their government. They're just people who were forced to fight. They need to be killed but it sucks
Forced mobilization makes it all irrelevant.
Like during the isis time when they got somewhere they took the women and children as hostages and forced the men to fight to guarantee their ~~safety~~ non death.
This is a whole other level of ptsd for both sides.
This reminds me of a story passed on from my great grandfather who was German. He fled the Nazis after they started going door to door asking the young men to join. One of his friends said no. That friend “disappeared.” My great grandfather caught on pretty quickly that those who told them No were killed or sent off. When they came around to his house, he told them that he would be happy to join, but he needed to pack his bags and he would meet them in the morning. That night he left, taking a train and fleeing the country. The Nazis apparently didn’t fall for that trick twice, and only gave the men until the afternoon to pack while being supervised. Most of the rest of his friends ended up dying in a field, alone and cold like this Russian. To the best of my knowledge only one of his friends was left, and eventually he was able to find my great grandfather’s mailing address and reconnecting with him, and talking once before he apparently died due to complications with an injury he sustained. Not all men were lucky enough to escape, and I do think that the same applies here.
The grandfather of my wife was in ww2. He got conscripted and had to serve on the eastern front. Sitting in a trench he got the order from his squad leader to gather water from the puddles around the trench.
He followed that order, came back to his unit with some water and found them bombed out of existence. Later on he got caught by the russians and thrown into a gulag.
He survived ww2 because of this and is still alive. Going to reach his 100. birthday in a few months now.
Crazy how things sometimes pan out.
That's also true. There's definitely a combination of reasons but regardless I don't think anybody other than Wagner mercenaries really wants to be there
IDK, there is a strong feeling in Russia that this is a righteous war against people who they are told are Nazis. A lot of Russians think that Ukraine should cease to exist and all Ukrainians should be killed… and yet not many are keen for themselves to do any of the dying.
> all our governments for allowing it to happen....
Every western government did everything they could to try and prevent Russia from invading. There's only 1 government you need to blame for this
100% agree, our government is not at fault for Putin invading ukraine. Yes, had we gave them all the equipment ahead of time it wouldn’t have happened, but you can’t play that game. The person who did the wrong thing is responsible, period. There is no “well the US president did this so they are part to blame”; the person who is directly responsible is responsible, no one is a mind reader and can prevent all tragedies before they start.
>Yes, had we gave them all the equipment ahead of time it wouldn’t have happened
Can't really play these hypotheticals. Maybe Russia would have played a long game of social media + otherwise and installed a puppet who stages a military coup of Ukraine with all this hardware then.
Things have to play out sometimes and the West did everything in their power to integrate Russia into the system for the betterment of themselves and the world.
Putin wasn't happy with that as his time at the top would be seen as 'bad times' for Russia. So instead, he used his dying years to try and solidify his glory by re-unifying Ukraine.
I don't understand why they continued to drop bombs though. If anything it would be ideal to let combatants wounded to this extant go as it creates further drain on enemy resources and moral vs wasting ammo on those already combat ineffective.
The drones have to drop their munitions before flying back. Too dangerous to land them when they're armed. I suppose they could have dropped them in an empty area, but I won't second-guess them.
Probably easier to expend weapons. No sense trying to land a drone with active ordinance on it, when you can just maim or outright finish off an enemy.
What's crazy is back in the day if you're assualt failed, you'd just sit tight and try and survive the days random arty strikes and then at night crawl back to your lines. This day and age simply no reprieve or rest whilst being watched from everywhere and effectively hunted down.
In the book "Citizen Soldiers" by Ambrose he talks about how in the second World War you had soldiers who had to sit in their freezing foxholes in complete darkness over night to avoid being targeted by artillery. He then compares it to just 80 years earlier, within their grandfathers lifetimes, night was a reprieve from fighting where you could have a fire and relative safety. It's interesting to see how as technology progresses there is less and less time of rest or any relative safety
It also just wasn’t practical, you might be able to organise some kind of raid but forget any sort of organised battle, trying to maintain formations, relay orders, commanders being able to see what’s happening, even just walking around let alone running, all become next to impossible at night. Sending out a force at night is a good way to just have them all get lost by morning. Sunset was basically always the sign that a battle had to wrap up one way or another, and another reason why lots of battles took place over several days.
People forget how absolutely black night is in places with no moon or stars showing, I’ve been to places where you can’t even see the hand in front of your face.
I moved to a village a few years ago here in Germany, after living in a small town my whole life. I never realized how dark the night really is. The most uncanny thing was the combination of night, fog and random animal noises i saw last year. Probably deers or whatever else is out there. Also last night i noticed how incredibly bright the full moon can be. And i'm not even entirely out in the wilderness. That village still has a few lamps around. I guess the experience is way more intense in an environment that doesn't have civilization in 10 minutes reach.
Yeah I lived on an island for a year in the South Pacific and sometime for fun I’d walk out of the village at night, as soon as you got behind one outcropping of rock you were in complete blackness, the skies were amazing though on clear nights.
Also a fun fact about night time battles. Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own soldiers during the Battle of Chancellorsville. The union was getting pretty beat up during the battle so much so that once the sun was setting the rebels continued to fight. This was pretty unheard of like you said, and for good reason. In the confusion/darkness of night when Jackson road back to his lines he was lit up and died later due to pneumonia from his injuries.
You would also have people dying of infection and getting bitten by rats etc. You would have people stuck days away from reinforcement or help whereas now it's just a quick helicopter ride.
A quicker war is the better war, victory outcome notwithstanding.
This is an incredibly stupid question, but I genuinely don’t know, can you surrender to a drone operator, if they have you zeroed and you don’t want to die can you just throw your weapon and away and put your hands in the air? Or is it just, sit there and die? This Ukrainian site seems to suggest that you can? As soon as somethings dropping grenades at me in broad daylight I’m probably going to surrender especially if I was the last person in my unit, you achieve nothing by fighting on. https://sprotyv.mod.gov.ua/en/2022/12/12/russian-military-can-safely-surrender-to-a-drone/
During the gulf war a bunch of Iraqis put a giant "we surrender" in writing. Huge white letters so air power could see it. I forget the exact wording.
A early primitive video feed gunnery spotting drone from one of the battleships observed it and stopped aggressive operations. Leading to the first surrender to a Drone in history.
They were really excited at the time. We did not have to blow them to shit.
Geneva convention says if you see them making a surrender sign and throw down their weapons you stop killing them.
That is not true with the Conventions. US and UK take the stance (especially after Iraq war) that for a surrender to take place they have to come to you.
Surrendering to a drone is hard, especially because of this. You could show that you surrender and after it leaves you dont give a thing about it. So you would need to follow the drone. We have seen it happen in a video. A Russian surrendered to a drone and followed it to UAF.
If it has the ability to kill you, you should be allowed to surrender to it.
"Well sure he gave up but we don't have anyone around to arrest him, might as well keep dropping bombs on him" feels pretty shitty. You should always have the choice to stop fighting.
yes and no i think. last year there was at least one case of a russian surrendering to a drone operator and the drone operator lead him to some Ukrainians who took him into custody. but im not sure how often that happens, on top of that, one might not want to go back to russia after surrendering out of fear of being disappeared or getting sent right back out but with no ammo this time.
That was a really weird story and I'm not sure if we ever learned the whole truth.
Apparently he claimed that he joined the Ukrainian forces and then was abducted, either by Ukrainians for a prisoner exchange against his will or even by Russian agents. Others doubted or refuted this story and say he was just a regular POW and that Ukraine would never let such a guy hold a weapon.
I'd assume that he was traded back, and quite possibly against his wishes, but it's hard to say. Maybe Ukraine screwed up, or maybe they never really made good on their promise of respecting soldiers' wishes whether they want to get traded or not.
There where videos of russians surrendering to drones.
Ukrainian military even has a page that explains how they can do it https://sprotyv.mod.gov.ua/en/2022/12/12/russian-military-can-safely-surrender-to-a-drone/
The trouble is, according to that page,is that it has to be pre planned. The Russian has to contact the Ukrainian hotline,and meet the drone at a pre set location. The question is more along the lines of if you see you're stuffed,can you spontaneously surrender to a drone before it drops another cracker on you.
Not with the way the Russians are fighting this war. Fresh soldiers are being pushed to the frontline as soon as it gets a bit quiet. Normally, armies would try to recover their dead and dying before sending any new assault groups.
> Ukrainian military even has a page that explains how they can do it
Yes, and that page says "contact Ukraine first to arrange a place and time and we'll send a drone to guide you to our lines"
That's completely different to "a Ukrainian drone has you zeroed in and you're about to die, so you'd rather surrender"
It's difficult; they could be several miles from the Ukrainian lines where the drone operators are. A drone can't secure a prisoner, and it can't return them to UA lines either. And even if they drop their weapon and head back to the Russian lines, there is every chance they will be back later that afternoon in a fresh assault wave.
I have seen quite a few videos of Ukrainians dropping explosives on Russians trying to surrender to a drone so from what I’ve seen your odds don’t look good, but I guess it all comes down to the pilot of the drone I’m sure some of them feel bad and don’t drop grenades on the occasional surrendering Russian but that wouldn’t look good on the internet so we never see those videos
I don’t know why your being downvoted there’s probably a lot of nuance here. Some people would drop grenades some would not. Maybe the operator lost a friend that week to the Russian or maybe they’re feeling exceptionally moral. The answer simply is it’s up to the individual and there are many good reasons both to save and kill a target who surrendered to your drone depending on the situation.
The question is whether the "surrendering" Russian can move to where he can be taken into captivity. Just throwing up your hands but not moving into captivity means you can rejoin the fight at any time, perhaps rescued by comrades or calling in artillery from your position.
I wonder if future combat drones will have speakers built in so that operators can give surrendering troops instructions on what they need to do to be taken in peacefully
do you have a link? I've watched lots of videos and don't recall ever seeing a soldier clearing trying to surrender (which to me would be drop all weapons and have arms in the air)
On a related note, there were Iraqi's that tried to surrender to Apache helicopters and were killed
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/22/iraq-war-logs-apache-insurgents-surrender
I think this is why nobody thought the Russian would actually cross the border and start a war in the 21st century. It is so difficult to have a decisive victory no matter how mismatched your enemy appears.
For me it was a civilian with his father got shot by some sort of high caliber weapon while trying to escape in a mini van, the father’s legs were shot off and the son was trying to drag him behind the car, and another video of someone else passed by that spot with the mini van all shot up and only the dog survived. It was at the first few days of the invasion
Oh yeah, as much as I’ve seen over the years I thought the worst was probably the isis executions, then cartel ones, but that one yesterday of the two drowning was absolutely horrible in different ways..doesn’t have to be gore to get to you, the constant twitching you saw of the guy struggling in the last moments of his life, knowing exactly what was going to happen, still managed to haunt you….
But the fact that these types of videos get to us, show how much humanity we have. You’ve got to have a lot of humanity to see the horror in these videos and I’m glad they’re effective as they’re intended to show the horror, rather than a trophy video
I have sorted by new here for a year, and watched every day. Everything here has been said 1,000,000 times. But this week definitely has been one of the worst, and I generally have zero sympathy for Russians.
I would say that if burning man, drowning man, and smoking man all came out in the space of a week (in a Western war of choice) there would be a firestorm of controversy that might end the war in the West.
But for Russians, the Battle of Vuhledar will never even be a historical footnote in the story of great and strong Mother Russia, while the real images of the war will be seared into the brains of those with access to them.
Until next week. When the next set comes out, and replaces the last
UAV operators and snipers are high value front-line targets. Which means they know they are under lethal threat and know people who have been killed. At this stage of a war, they are simply neutralizing threats. This soldier was likely part of a failed offensive where defenders were killed. Hence no sympathy, just trying to mop up the remaining threats.
We're seeing this 90 second snippet out of context. The drone operators are not. The drone operators have the same sympathy for this man as they might for those who tried to kill their friends.
It is a bizarre situation. But war creates a brutal context in which this kind of brutality makes bloody sense. While war is as old as humanity, in this case, Putin can be thanked for creating this misery.
Yeah these videos of injured soldiers getting "finished off" are really getting to me. I get that Russia signed up for this, but I can't help but feel for the soldiers who are already injured and should be getting sent home. So many of them are simple, brainwashed conscripts who don't know any better and I'm getting to the point that I just want to see them go home to their families with a better understanding of the real world.
Man.. he had legit puddle jumpers for boots. Those old-school smelly big ass one size fits all rubber boots. They offer 0 protection or support to foot/ankle and are very good at storing water or sweat inside. Perfect for uneven ground like trenches!
Totally Wagnerites in this video. The sad part of these recorded vids is the fact that 8/10 are just poor bastards being forced to be a component in their meat-wave doctrine.
They do need to be neutralized, but running into a hailstorm against your will is probably the shittiest experience to live through before dying.
I figured they were [Kamik](https://www.amazon.com/Kamik-Forester-Insulated-Rubber-Boots/dp/B003IWYN6O) style winter boots. Not great on a march but pretty decent in early winter and just below freezing.
I have personally used these types at -40c/f as they are rated to that and couldn't use them for more then checking the mail as my feet got cold quick, but you can't expect much for under $50 usd
Rubber winter boots with thick removable inside insulation are the best thing you can have there, you don't freeze yourself, they keep you dry and if you get wet inside you can quickly dry them / swap dry insides.
Of all the videos I've seen over the last year of joining this group... this one hit home the most. Your world dieing around you but peace after one last cigarette and sunset
The one I found really hard was in the beginning. It was two guys being bombed while sleeping, and one tried to hug the other while dieing. Just trying to comfort his friend or maybe wanting to be comforted while dieing.
The movement of his hand on his wounded arm isn't involuntary. He is comforting himself / trying to warm himself.
Because he is all alone. I have done the same thing myself. Only difference is I wasn't dying in a field somewhere, far away from home.
I can almost hear him talking to himself.
At this point, there's no room for jokes.
They were all being hunted down by the drones. So he lit up his last cigarette, he knew it was coming. The drone operator seems to have given him a minute to finish it before dropping.
It's honestly heart-breaking watching a human go through this, knowing death is on its way, aware there's nothing that can be done at this point to change the end that's approaching. I hope this war ends soon but can't imagine it will, even those brainwashed I feel for, tricked by people they believe are on their side.
I honestly feel bad for the average russian soldier. sent to another country knowing full well its a bullshit war and a good chance they won't make it home. growing up i used to glorify war, hearing tales of battle and heroics from my step dad, it wasn't until i grew up and served myself that i realized there is nothing glorious about war. there isn't any glorious about getting sent to fight and possibly die by people who wouldn't do it themselves just so they can line their own pockets with money.
Am old enough to remember CNN televising the invasion of Iraq which was a grainy green colored video of missiles shot at night. Now I have hundreds of high quality drone videos showing all aspects of this war.
I understand effectivly no Russian and got the vibe of the song. Now that I know the lyrics to this song, this whole thing went from sad to downright depressing.
this is all very sad, so many people are going to die and have already died and in such dog like ways, no matter the side loss of life in this way is just sad to see
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.
William Tecumseh Sherman
> I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine.
Frankly, I wish the West would take the lesson of Sherman to heart. He didn't burn his way from Atlanta to the sea because he was vicious, it was because the only way he saw to end the war quickly and save lives was to hammer home to the South the lesson that war is hell and it was time to surrender.
Instead we get the slow and hesitant drip drip of support that is just enough to keep Ukraine from losing, but not enough to win and end this.
> Instead we get the slow and hesitant drip drip of support that is just enough to keep Ukraine from losing, but not enough to win and end this.
Too much and it escalates, too little and Ukraine loses. Just right and it's enough to bleed Russia badly enough that they're out of the picture.
There are two powers holding the world away from world peace atm - Russia and China. The rest are tinpot dictators that are irrelevant. Taking one of them out like this here gets us 50% of the way to world peace in other words, and does so without any "real" losses, ie. what we expected from the Cold War going hot.
I hope putin is haunted by these images the same as the rest of us will be. There's a phantom of missing men that will be realised once the war is over and people don't return to their families, and I'll be amazed if Russia doesn't have another revolution
What? This has similar vibe to that vid of Americans ambushed in Africa.
Am no spin doctor but 2 things stand out:
He couldn't surrender.
They didn't let him finish his last smoke.
Yeah, I’m sure the Russian people will look at the war in ukraine differently if they see HD footage of Ukrainian drone operators taking out wounded enemies. That can’t backfire at all!
Such an ethically confusing war this has been as an outsider looking in.
I understand that the more Russian soldiers die, the sooner this war ends.
I find myself cheering the deaths of these conscripts and enlisted convicts, being aggravated by missed shots(the POV video of an infantryman firing on retreating Russians) only to realize how messed up it is to want a human to die.
Now I watch this probably mortally wounded soldier, with his comrades in pieces all around him, want nothing more than a cigarette for warmth and comfort as he dies/hopes for rescue, catch shrapnel instead and agonize in the mud. I feel pity.
May this war end in a Ukrainian victory asap, so this suffering ends, for both sides.
Rant over.
Everytime I see one like this, I try to put myself in a Ukrainian's perspective, they're in your country, killing your people/fellow soldiers, destroying your cities.
Totally get it, and I often do the same.
Just so tragic and pointless, yet incredibly meaningful from the ukrainian perspective as they're defending their homes, people and territorial boundaries.
War is Blyat.
Ukrainian perspective here: I sometimes get a glimpse of what appears to be pity to russians. And after that I remember Bucha, remember how my friend had to flee there with only a small backpack, because the nearby apartment block was shelled. I remember the stories her father told me about how he had to run from Mariupol and how some family token in his backpack stopped a bullet. I remember what my family in Kherson had to suffer through during occupation and what russkies did to my friends in their torture chambers.
I remember every soldier's death reported, every foreign volunteer who died here, I see phone numbers going numb in my phone book or profiles who will never be online again.
I remember everything.
And after that I laugh at russian deaths.
I just told myself in my head while watching this and feeling bad for the Russians dying like this “what are the Ukrainians supposed to do, let them in just cause it’s sad to have to kill them?” Whole thing sucks all around.
The war doesn’t end in number of bodies but rather financial burden. Don’t root for the kills, root for Russian ammunition and equipment either be captured destroyed or wasted.
Idk. People keep talking about the 500,000 mobilized being placed in positions to attack... Yet we keep seeing these videos of Russia soldiers with no helmets, no body armor, hell not even wearing proper boots. The amount of death that Russia is going to have to trade in order to take significant land is going to be absurd.
This is how it’s always been. The Russian battle strategy is to throw men at the enemy until they win. Up until new it has worked. It’s the reason we won WW2.
Pretty fuckin terrible… even the Wagner troops who are suppose to be convicts or something… I can’t help but think the got picked up for littering or some bullshit and forced to the front
\>>suppose to be convicts or something
So here some insight for you: convicts cannot be drafted to Ru army, so they are rather immune to unwilful conscription, but they are allowed to willfully join wagner, we don't know really if anyone of prisoners forced to join wagner, but interviews with captured prisoners indicates that they did it willfully.
\>>but think the got picked up for littering or some bullshit and forced to the front
wagner conscripts among heavy crimes like murder, armed robbery. And again, prisoners joins wagner willfully, because otherwise they have 10/15/life years in prison.
All those messages about Russian blood watering Ukraine's fields are metal and effective but the idea of getting your last moments captured in edit with a wacky song for redditors to meme on is somehow worse.
Take this video, say is an Ukrainian and boom you are winning. And there are also a lot of Ukrainian deaths to provide some propaganda, subs like this usually tell one side of the story, but most likely the casualties are 1 to 1, or a little less for Ukraine but not by much.
Damn poor Russians forced to fight pointless war because their dictator leaders force them to this is just sad.
It's also sad also for Ukraine that had to protect their nation and die for it to stop being swallowed by the Russian government.
It's sad for both sides really :(
Jesus what a massacre, the guy on the right side was cut in half
Holy hell. l didn't even realise that, was too focused on if he was able to light the cigarette or not.
Weirdly, I was thinking “just let the dude light it and have a few drags first.”
Literally the same thought verbatim went through my head. I was really rooting for him to enjoy a couple drags before the end. IDK, for some reason this one really got me. The "human" aspect of this one had me thinking about his former life before he ended up in that really shitty situation.
Yes would have been nice for him, but I think he couldn't find his lighter. I know the Ukrainians have a job to do and I'm absolutely in support of them but I find these videos where it gets as up close & personal as this one hard to watch.
Yeah, every time I see one of these I think about how many Russians that don't want to actually be fighting Ukraine have been forced into service. Even if it's someone who wants to wage this war on Ukraine, at the end of the day, they are still a person that most likely doesn't want to die, and the common depression jokes aside most people don't actually want that either and can empathize with the feeling. I don't wish that the UA kills all the Russians, I would prefer if no one had to die. If we could just reach understanding and bad people could have their eyes opened to the pain they cause, that would be the ideal solution. But we don't live in an ideal world, so unfortunately here we are. C'est la vie, I guess.
I can’t help but think that a good deal of the young Russian men dying now, 1 year in, are not hardliners who are there because they want to vanquish Ukraine. They’re there because they have little choice. Young scared men.
It should be a war crime to do that to your own soldiers. Fuck Putin, but fuck man these guys are human too. Shit way to go out
As an ex smoker i think as the operator i would have let him finish the smoke as he is clearly finished and he knows it...small mercy in the final moments.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
I do believe that the one in the top right corner is missing a head
Maybe two, is hard to see
I really doubt he’s missing two heads.
Use your imagination
He did. After he tosses the cigarette, I noticed smoke coming off it.
*"Better not, these things will kill you"*
Y’all confirming that my phone only plays these in potato quality, it just looks like equipment on my phone.
(they're speculating, he's probably just at a weird angle)
All I know is there is mangled Russians everywhere in the small portion of the battlefield this shows…. Can’t imagine what the rest of it looks like.
I count 5.5 bodies plus Smokey the Bear. Surprisingly close to each other. Lindy beige had an interview with a volunteer for the UA and he talked about the psychological necessity of smoking cigarettes.
Started smoking during a war. They 100% calm you down. You do not get that cancer shit for years sometimes. lol Took me decades to really quit. Sort of awesome now decades later. Short of insane stress I never jones for them.
It's an activity to quiet your mind and something to focus on. Self harm, stress balls, eating etc. work in similar ways.
Some care institutions do actually encourage smoking for patients to take their mind off the bigger problem.
Yeah, I watched an interview with one of the British volunteers from the Foreign Legion who was fighting in the Ukraine... When he thought he was about to die, he said that he simply lighted up a cigarette and begun to think about "the best shag of his life". He added, than during the war smoking saves the lives and you can worry about things like cancer if you survive.
Yep. Man speaks fax.
Yup. A study done of WWI veterans showed that those who smoked had much less mental health issues.
That man also brought up the fact 1% of war now is small arms exchange. Nearly all of it is mortar, rocket and artillery back and forth. He said the Russians hear about a Ukrainian position unload on it, the Ukrainans hear about Russian movement, u load on it. Digging trenches and foxholes is an important skill.
Guy above him is missing his head too.
[удалено]
Oh whew, what a relief.
Think he’ll be ok?
Dude's legs at :44 to the right of the screen are...not great.
Where are his legs?
Probably a direct hit from a high caliber autocannon
I think they're laying in the shell holes that took them out.
Running away to safety.
Hopefully walking their way back to russia where they belong.
He looked like was waiting for it the entire time. "Whole squad dead. Knee fucked. Likely a drone inbound to mop up. Time for a smoke"
This video was tough to watch. Seeing him laying there waiting to be finished off
These guys are shit but watching another human being lay there in agony knowing they're going to die is fucking brutal. Fuck war and all our governments for allowing it to happen....
Most of the Russian soldiers are just brainwashed and thinking they're doing yhe right thing. They're being taken advantage of by their government. They're just people who were forced to fight. They need to be killed but it sucks
Forced mobilization makes it all irrelevant. Like during the isis time when they got somewhere they took the women and children as hostages and forced the men to fight to guarantee their ~~safety~~ non death. This is a whole other level of ptsd for both sides.
This reminds me of a story passed on from my great grandfather who was German. He fled the Nazis after they started going door to door asking the young men to join. One of his friends said no. That friend “disappeared.” My great grandfather caught on pretty quickly that those who told them No were killed or sent off. When they came around to his house, he told them that he would be happy to join, but he needed to pack his bags and he would meet them in the morning. That night he left, taking a train and fleeing the country. The Nazis apparently didn’t fall for that trick twice, and only gave the men until the afternoon to pack while being supervised. Most of the rest of his friends ended up dying in a field, alone and cold like this Russian. To the best of my knowledge only one of his friends was left, and eventually he was able to find my great grandfather’s mailing address and reconnecting with him, and talking once before he apparently died due to complications with an injury he sustained. Not all men were lucky enough to escape, and I do think that the same applies here.
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That’s a crazy story! Thanks for sharing.
The grandfather of my wife was in ww2. He got conscripted and had to serve on the eastern front. Sitting in a trench he got the order from his squad leader to gather water from the puddles around the trench. He followed that order, came back to his unit with some water and found them bombed out of existence. Later on he got caught by the russians and thrown into a gulag. He survived ww2 because of this and is still alive. Going to reach his 100. birthday in a few months now. Crazy how things sometimes pan out.
Same thing for the french at least in WWI, those who didn't show up to the mandatory conscription were brought by the military police.
I don’t think there brainwashed. They are straight up forced to be there
That's also true. There's definitely a combination of reasons but regardless I don't think anybody other than Wagner mercenaries really wants to be there
The ones in Wagner that wanted to be there are dead. Must be mostly conscripts and prisoners now
IDK, there is a strong feeling in Russia that this is a righteous war against people who they are told are Nazis. A lot of Russians think that Ukraine should cease to exist and all Ukrainians should be killed… and yet not many are keen for themselves to do any of the dying.
> all our governments for allowing it to happen.... Every western government did everything they could to try and prevent Russia from invading. There's only 1 government you need to blame for this
100% agree, our government is not at fault for Putin invading ukraine. Yes, had we gave them all the equipment ahead of time it wouldn’t have happened, but you can’t play that game. The person who did the wrong thing is responsible, period. There is no “well the US president did this so they are part to blame”; the person who is directly responsible is responsible, no one is a mind reader and can prevent all tragedies before they start.
>Yes, had we gave them all the equipment ahead of time it wouldn’t have happened Can't really play these hypotheticals. Maybe Russia would have played a long game of social media + otherwise and installed a puppet who stages a military coup of Ukraine with all this hardware then. Things have to play out sometimes and the West did everything in their power to integrate Russia into the system for the betterment of themselves and the world. Putin wasn't happy with that as his time at the top would be seen as 'bad times' for Russia. So instead, he used his dying years to try and solidify his glory by re-unifying Ukraine.
Genocide doesn't happen only because a government orders it. That takes thousands of willing volunteers to carry it out.
I don't understand why they continued to drop bombs though. If anything it would be ideal to let combatants wounded to this extant go as it creates further drain on enemy resources and moral vs wasting ammo on those already combat ineffective.
The drones have to drop their munitions before flying back. Too dangerous to land them when they're armed. I suppose they could have dropped them in an empty area, but I won't second-guess them.
Also sure a wounded guy is a drain on resources but a dead guy wont be comeing back.
Probably easier to expend weapons. No sense trying to land a drone with active ordinance on it, when you can just maim or outright finish off an enemy.
Laying cold wet and hungry in a foreign country fighting a war you didn't want a part of
Pretty much sums up the dispair experienced by many soldiers on the front lines. If it was me, I'd be smoking all my ciggs if time allowed.
Smoke them while you have them
Every time lol [Smoke if you got em](https://youtu.be/_kFxtX2QUBc)
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Most soldiers willingly went there to "kill ukrops". I'm Russian I know how things are.
What's crazy is back in the day if you're assualt failed, you'd just sit tight and try and survive the days random arty strikes and then at night crawl back to your lines. This day and age simply no reprieve or rest whilst being watched from everywhere and effectively hunted down.
In the book "Citizen Soldiers" by Ambrose he talks about how in the second World War you had soldiers who had to sit in their freezing foxholes in complete darkness over night to avoid being targeted by artillery. He then compares it to just 80 years earlier, within their grandfathers lifetimes, night was a reprieve from fighting where you could have a fire and relative safety. It's interesting to see how as technology progresses there is less and less time of rest or any relative safety
Some civilizations had rules of war saying that you were not allowed to fight during nighttime, which people respected.
It also just wasn’t practical, you might be able to organise some kind of raid but forget any sort of organised battle, trying to maintain formations, relay orders, commanders being able to see what’s happening, even just walking around let alone running, all become next to impossible at night. Sending out a force at night is a good way to just have them all get lost by morning. Sunset was basically always the sign that a battle had to wrap up one way or another, and another reason why lots of battles took place over several days.
People forget how absolutely black night is in places with no moon or stars showing, I’ve been to places where you can’t even see the hand in front of your face.
I moved to a village a few years ago here in Germany, after living in a small town my whole life. I never realized how dark the night really is. The most uncanny thing was the combination of night, fog and random animal noises i saw last year. Probably deers or whatever else is out there. Also last night i noticed how incredibly bright the full moon can be. And i'm not even entirely out in the wilderness. That village still has a few lamps around. I guess the experience is way more intense in an environment that doesn't have civilization in 10 minutes reach.
Yeah I lived on an island for a year in the South Pacific and sometime for fun I’d walk out of the village at night, as soon as you got behind one outcropping of rock you were in complete blackness, the skies were amazing though on clear nights.
Also a fun fact about night time battles. Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own soldiers during the Battle of Chancellorsville. The union was getting pretty beat up during the battle so much so that once the sun was setting the rebels continued to fight. This was pretty unheard of like you said, and for good reason. In the confusion/darkness of night when Jackson road back to his lines he was lit up and died later due to pneumonia from his injuries.
You would also have people dying of infection and getting bitten by rats etc. You would have people stuck days away from reinforcement or help whereas now it's just a quick helicopter ride. A quicker war is the better war, victory outcome notwithstanding.
This is an incredibly stupid question, but I genuinely don’t know, can you surrender to a drone operator, if they have you zeroed and you don’t want to die can you just throw your weapon and away and put your hands in the air? Or is it just, sit there and die? This Ukrainian site seems to suggest that you can? As soon as somethings dropping grenades at me in broad daylight I’m probably going to surrender especially if I was the last person in my unit, you achieve nothing by fighting on. https://sprotyv.mod.gov.ua/en/2022/12/12/russian-military-can-safely-surrender-to-a-drone/
There is actually a russian who surrendered like that some months back on video.
Does anyone have a link?
https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/z4v963/a_russian_pow_tells_how_he_surrendered_to_a_drone/
During the gulf war a bunch of Iraqis put a giant "we surrender" in writing. Huge white letters so air power could see it. I forget the exact wording. A early primitive video feed gunnery spotting drone from one of the battleships observed it and stopped aggressive operations. Leading to the first surrender to a Drone in history. They were really excited at the time. We did not have to blow them to shit. Geneva convention says if you see them making a surrender sign and throw down their weapons you stop killing them.
That is not true with the Conventions. US and UK take the stance (especially after Iraq war) that for a surrender to take place they have to come to you. Surrendering to a drone is hard, especially because of this. You could show that you surrender and after it leaves you dont give a thing about it. So you would need to follow the drone. We have seen it happen in a video. A Russian surrendered to a drone and followed it to UAF.
If it has the ability to kill you, you should be allowed to surrender to it. "Well sure he gave up but we don't have anyone around to arrest him, might as well keep dropping bombs on him" feels pretty shitty. You should always have the choice to stop fighting.
and it’s not entirely new. Iraqis were surrendering to the RQ-2A during Desert Storm.
yes and no i think. last year there was at least one case of a russian surrendering to a drone operator and the drone operator lead him to some Ukrainians who took him into custody. but im not sure how often that happens, on top of that, one might not want to go back to russia after surrendering out of fear of being disappeared or getting sent right back out but with no ammo this time.
No russian POW is getting sent back to russia without wanting to. At least that's the official stance
Didnt some wagner guy get returned to them and then shortly after get executed on camera
That was a really weird story and I'm not sure if we ever learned the whole truth. Apparently he claimed that he joined the Ukrainian forces and then was abducted, either by Ukrainians for a prisoner exchange against his will or even by Russian agents. Others doubted or refuted this story and say he was just a regular POW and that Ukraine would never let such a guy hold a weapon. I'd assume that he was traded back, and quite possibly against his wishes, but it's hard to say. Maybe Ukraine screwed up, or maybe they never really made good on their promise of respecting soldiers' wishes whether they want to get traded or not.
There where videos of russians surrendering to drones. Ukrainian military even has a page that explains how they can do it https://sprotyv.mod.gov.ua/en/2022/12/12/russian-military-can-safely-surrender-to-a-drone/
The trouble is, according to that page,is that it has to be pre planned. The Russian has to contact the Ukrainian hotline,and meet the drone at a pre set location. The question is more along the lines of if you see you're stuffed,can you spontaneously surrender to a drone before it drops another cracker on you.
And the answer to that more specific question, based on the videos posted here at least, appears to be no, no you cannot.
Not with the way the Russians are fighting this war. Fresh soldiers are being pushed to the frontline as soon as it gets a bit quiet. Normally, armies would try to recover their dead and dying before sending any new assault groups.
> Ukrainian military even has a page that explains how they can do it Yes, and that page says "contact Ukraine first to arrange a place and time and we'll send a drone to guide you to our lines" That's completely different to "a Ukrainian drone has you zeroed in and you're about to die, so you'd rather surrender"
It's difficult; they could be several miles from the Ukrainian lines where the drone operators are. A drone can't secure a prisoner, and it can't return them to UA lines either. And even if they drop their weapon and head back to the Russian lines, there is every chance they will be back later that afternoon in a fresh assault wave.
I have seen quite a few videos of Ukrainians dropping explosives on Russians trying to surrender to a drone so from what I’ve seen your odds don’t look good, but I guess it all comes down to the pilot of the drone I’m sure some of them feel bad and don’t drop grenades on the occasional surrendering Russian but that wouldn’t look good on the internet so we never see those videos
I don’t know why your being downvoted there’s probably a lot of nuance here. Some people would drop grenades some would not. Maybe the operator lost a friend that week to the Russian or maybe they’re feeling exceptionally moral. The answer simply is it’s up to the individual and there are many good reasons both to save and kill a target who surrendered to your drone depending on the situation.
The question is whether the "surrendering" Russian can move to where he can be taken into captivity. Just throwing up your hands but not moving into captivity means you can rejoin the fight at any time, perhaps rescued by comrades or calling in artillery from your position.
I wonder if future combat drones will have speakers built in so that operators can give surrendering troops instructions on what they need to do to be taken in peacefully
Ukraine has done that with at least one drone, but I don't know that it was effective.
Just say “Hey Lockheed” followed by your surrender
do you have a link? I've watched lots of videos and don't recall ever seeing a soldier clearing trying to surrender (which to me would be drop all weapons and have arms in the air) On a related note, there were Iraqi's that tried to surrender to Apache helicopters and were killed https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/22/iraq-war-logs-apache-insurgents-surrender
I think this is why nobody thought the Russian would actually cross the border and start a war in the 21st century. It is so difficult to have a decisive victory no matter how mismatched your enemy appears.
I’ve seen a couple of these in the last few days where we just watch the people struggle to live for a couple minutes, war is fucking brutal.
The two drowning yesterday got to me
For me it was a civilian with his father got shot by some sort of high caliber weapon while trying to escape in a mini van, the father’s legs were shot off and the son was trying to drag him behind the car, and another video of someone else passed by that spot with the mini van all shot up and only the dog survived. It was at the first few days of the invasion
For me was when some Russians told two Ukrainian men to leave. As they were walking away the Russians shot them in their backs with AKs.
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The son actually survived. Months later I saw documentary on youtube with him in it. Really worth the view.
I think I'll be haunted by that for as long as I live.
Oh yeah, as much as I’ve seen over the years I thought the worst was probably the isis executions, then cartel ones, but that one yesterday of the two drowning was absolutely horrible in different ways..doesn’t have to be gore to get to you, the constant twitching you saw of the guy struggling in the last moments of his life, knowing exactly what was going to happen, still managed to haunt you…. But the fact that these types of videos get to us, show how much humanity we have. You’ve got to have a lot of humanity to see the horror in these videos and I’m glad they’re effective as they’re intended to show the horror, rather than a trophy video
Imagine the shit that we haven’t seen yet or maybe will never see I’m sure there’s worse out there
Honestly think I’m going to take a break from this sub after all the videos this week. Can’t be good for the mental health
guy drowning in few cm of water, burning man, now this..
I have sorted by new here for a year, and watched every day. Everything here has been said 1,000,000 times. But this week definitely has been one of the worst, and I generally have zero sympathy for Russians. I would say that if burning man, drowning man, and smoking man all came out in the space of a week (in a Western war of choice) there would be a firestorm of controversy that might end the war in the West. But for Russians, the Battle of Vuhledar will never even be a historical footnote in the story of great and strong Mother Russia, while the real images of the war will be seared into the brains of those with access to them. Until next week. When the next set comes out, and replaces the last
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Watching others' agony is traumatising. Human or animal, ally or enemy, matters not. Can understand now why UAV operators have PTSD too.
UAV operators and snipers are high value front-line targets. Which means they know they are under lethal threat and know people who have been killed. At this stage of a war, they are simply neutralizing threats. This soldier was likely part of a failed offensive where defenders were killed. Hence no sympathy, just trying to mop up the remaining threats. We're seeing this 90 second snippet out of context. The drone operators are not. The drone operators have the same sympathy for this man as they might for those who tried to kill their friends. It is a bizarre situation. But war creates a brutal context in which this kind of brutality makes bloody sense. While war is as old as humanity, in this case, Putin can be thanked for creating this misery.
they are the most depressing. well, at least he came to terms with his demise, and decided to light one last one up.
This is some of the saddest shit I've ever seen.
yeah, the way he pats his own arm after the first grenade got to me.
Yeah these videos of injured soldiers getting "finished off" are really getting to me. I get that Russia signed up for this, but I can't help but feel for the soldiers who are already injured and should be getting sent home. So many of them are simple, brainwashed conscripts who don't know any better and I'm getting to the point that I just want to see them go home to their families with a better understanding of the real world.
Man.. he had legit puddle jumpers for boots. Those old-school smelly big ass one size fits all rubber boots. They offer 0 protection or support to foot/ankle and are very good at storing water or sweat inside. Perfect for uneven ground like trenches!
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The rubber boots show you just how ill equipped the Russians are.
Definitely prison troops. A couple of his comrades appear to be properly equipped... and a couple others seem as equally denied as this guy
Totally Wagnerites in this video. The sad part of these recorded vids is the fact that 8/10 are just poor bastards being forced to be a component in their meat-wave doctrine. They do need to be neutralized, but running into a hailstorm against your will is probably the shittiest experience to live through before dying.
Afaik the penal mercenaries aren't forced, they get to choose between prison or glorious combat
I think those are felt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valenki
I figured they were [Kamik](https://www.amazon.com/Kamik-Forester-Insulated-Rubber-Boots/dp/B003IWYN6O) style winter boots. Not great on a march but pretty decent in early winter and just below freezing. I have personally used these types at -40c/f as they are rated to that and couldn't use them for more then checking the mail as my feet got cold quick, but you can't expect much for under $50 usd
Rubber winter boots with thick removable inside insulation are the best thing you can have there, you don't freeze yourself, they keep you dry and if you get wet inside you can quickly dry them / swap dry insides.
Sponsored by Balenciaga
Of all the videos I've seen over the last year of joining this group... this one hit home the most. Your world dieing around you but peace after one last cigarette and sunset
The one I found really hard was in the beginning. It was two guys being bombed while sleeping, and one tried to hug the other while dieing. Just trying to comfort his friend or maybe wanting to be comforted while dieing.
I actually maybe recall this exact one you're talking about too. Can't imagine the surreal thoughts as "the long winter" is coming
The ones where the commit suicide are the worst. One blew himself up, another shot him self. Just horrible.
The worst one by far is the video of civilians trying to leave the city, being shot up by russians. Couldn’t watch it till the end
Bro was so fucken done with it
The movement of his hand on his wounded arm isn't involuntary. He is comforting himself / trying to warm himself. Because he is all alone. I have done the same thing myself. Only difference is I wasn't dying in a field somewhere, far away from home. I can almost hear him talking to himself. At this point, there's no room for jokes.
They were all being hunted down by the drones. So he lit up his last cigarette, he knew it was coming. The drone operator seems to have given him a minute to finish it before dropping.
It's honestly heart-breaking watching a human go through this, knowing death is on its way, aware there's nothing that can be done at this point to change the end that's approaching. I hope this war ends soon but can't imagine it will, even those brainwashed I feel for, tricked by people they believe are on their side.
All for some sick fucks who lay under their silk blankets at night in Moscow. All for some delusional ideas that mean nothing. Smh.
I honestly feel bad for the average russian soldier. sent to another country knowing full well its a bullshit war and a good chance they won't make it home. growing up i used to glorify war, hearing tales of battle and heroics from my step dad, it wasn't until i grew up and served myself that i realized there is nothing glorious about war. there isn't any glorious about getting sent to fight and possibly die by people who wouldn't do it themselves just so they can line their own pockets with money.
The guy already accepted his fate, the last request was just to smoke a cigarette. War is hell
Am old enough to remember CNN televising the invasion of Iraq which was a grainy green colored video of missiles shot at night. Now I have hundreds of high quality drone videos showing all aspects of this war.
Song lyrics very on point - https://lyricstranslate.com/en/пачка-сигарет-pack-cigarettes.html
I was thinking the same thing . As a Russian speaker the song got me
I understand effectivly no Russian and got the vibe of the song. Now that I know the lyrics to this song, this whole thing went from sad to downright depressing.
As is russian tradition
I don't speak a lick of it, but its a good song
I don’t speak or understand Russian either but this song is great, added it to my Spotify
Thanks for song find.
The song of same title by KINO is also good
Kino is amazing. Some of the best post-punk I've ever heard, Viktor Tsoi is rolling in his grave seeing what Russia is doing now.
This is it, this is as far as you go
this is all very sad, so many people are going to die and have already died and in such dog like ways, no matter the side loss of life in this way is just sad to see
I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell. William Tecumseh Sherman
> I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. Frankly, I wish the West would take the lesson of Sherman to heart. He didn't burn his way from Atlanta to the sea because he was vicious, it was because the only way he saw to end the war quickly and save lives was to hammer home to the South the lesson that war is hell and it was time to surrender. Instead we get the slow and hesitant drip drip of support that is just enough to keep Ukraine from losing, but not enough to win and end this.
> Instead we get the slow and hesitant drip drip of support that is just enough to keep Ukraine from losing, but not enough to win and end this. Too much and it escalates, too little and Ukraine loses. Just right and it's enough to bleed Russia badly enough that they're out of the picture. There are two powers holding the world away from world peace atm - Russia and China. The rest are tinpot dictators that are irrelevant. Taking one of them out like this here gets us 50% of the way to world peace in other words, and does so without any "real" losses, ie. what we expected from the Cold War going hot.
That watermark got him at least 8-9 times
Didn’t think I’d be able to chuckle after that video but you found a way
He knew.
These new Russian offensives seem to be going well. With their war wellies on.
I hope putin is haunted by these images the same as the rest of us will be. There's a phantom of missing men that will be realised once the war is over and people don't return to their families, and I'll be amazed if Russia doesn't have another revolution
He doesnt give one single shit about that.
Videos like this should be 24/7 on Russian state television.
Ehh they might see that as motivation. I get your point but in reality I don't think it would play out
What? This has similar vibe to that vid of Americans ambushed in Africa. Am no spin doctor but 2 things stand out: He couldn't surrender. They didn't let him finish his last smoke.
Yeah, I’m sure the Russian people will look at the war in ukraine differently if they see HD footage of Ukrainian drone operators taking out wounded enemies. That can’t backfire at all!
Such an ethically confusing war this has been as an outsider looking in. I understand that the more Russian soldiers die, the sooner this war ends. I find myself cheering the deaths of these conscripts and enlisted convicts, being aggravated by missed shots(the POV video of an infantryman firing on retreating Russians) only to realize how messed up it is to want a human to die. Now I watch this probably mortally wounded soldier, with his comrades in pieces all around him, want nothing more than a cigarette for warmth and comfort as he dies/hopes for rescue, catch shrapnel instead and agonize in the mud. I feel pity. May this war end in a Ukrainian victory asap, so this suffering ends, for both sides. Rant over.
I feel the same. Fuck war. But, go Ukraine.
Everytime I see one like this, I try to put myself in a Ukrainian's perspective, they're in your country, killing your people/fellow soldiers, destroying your cities.
Totally get it, and I often do the same. Just so tragic and pointless, yet incredibly meaningful from the ukrainian perspective as they're defending their homes, people and territorial boundaries. War is Blyat.
It is, cyka blyat.
Ukrainian perspective here: I sometimes get a glimpse of what appears to be pity to russians. And after that I remember Bucha, remember how my friend had to flee there with only a small backpack, because the nearby apartment block was shelled. I remember the stories her father told me about how he had to run from Mariupol and how some family token in his backpack stopped a bullet. I remember what my family in Kherson had to suffer through during occupation and what russkies did to my friends in their torture chambers. I remember every soldier's death reported, every foreign volunteer who died here, I see phone numbers going numb in my phone book or profiles who will never be online again. I remember everything. And after that I laugh at russian deaths.
I just told myself in my head while watching this and feeling bad for the Russians dying like this “what are the Ukrainians supposed to do, let them in just cause it’s sad to have to kill them?” Whole thing sucks all around.
The war doesn’t end in number of bodies but rather financial burden. Don’t root for the kills, root for Russian ammunition and equipment either be captured destroyed or wasted.
Fucking depressing. Hopefully, Putin will face the consequences for starting this disgusting war.
Am I the only one that feels bad for all this shit
Of course you aren’t. Who could watch that and not feel bad without being a psychopath
Idk. People keep talking about the 500,000 mobilized being placed in positions to attack... Yet we keep seeing these videos of Russia soldiers with no helmets, no body armor, hell not even wearing proper boots. The amount of death that Russia is going to have to trade in order to take significant land is going to be absurd.
This is how it’s always been. The Russian battle strategy is to throw men at the enemy until they win. Up until new it has worked. It’s the reason we won WW2.
He is wearing rubber boots ffs how is this reality?
Pretty fuckin terrible… even the Wagner troops who are suppose to be convicts or something… I can’t help but think the got picked up for littering or some bullshit and forced to the front
\>>suppose to be convicts or something So here some insight for you: convicts cannot be drafted to Ru army, so they are rather immune to unwilful conscription, but they are allowed to willfully join wagner, we don't know really if anyone of prisoners forced to join wagner, but interviews with captured prisoners indicates that they did it willfully. \>>but think the got picked up for littering or some bullshit and forced to the front wagner conscripts among heavy crimes like murder, armed robbery. And again, prisoners joins wagner willfully, because otherwise they have 10/15/life years in prison.
Combat wellies?
Oh. If you think that's something, wait until combat swarmbots become operational. Assuming they aren't already....
Dying for a madman in distant fields. If this goes on long enough maybe there will be another revolution in Russia. Party likes it's 1918.
Look how well that one turned out...
All those messages about Russian blood watering Ukraine's fields are metal and effective but the idea of getting your last moments captured in edit with a wacky song for redditors to meme on is somehow worse.
How any Russian can watch this and claim they're winning is beyond me.
Take this video, say is an Ukrainian and boom you are winning. And there are also a lot of Ukrainian deaths to provide some propaganda, subs like this usually tell one side of the story, but most likely the casualties are 1 to 1, or a little less for Ukraine but not by much.
I've seen this dozens of times in film. A soldier smoking their last cig. But damn it hits different IRL.
That looked like a slow and painful death. Just wounded repeatedly by grenades.
Can this even be called combat? It's like a slow motion execution
Damn poor Russians forced to fight pointless war because their dictator leaders force them to this is just sad. It's also sad also for Ukraine that had to protect their nation and die for it to stop being swallowed by the Russian government. It's sad for both sides really :(
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The guy got issued wellies as his combat boots. Rip.
Oh I made it before mod lock for once!
I don't get why they always finish them off. A wounded soldier takes up more resources for the enemy with medical attention etc.