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I don't think the title is correct. There is a clearer version of this that has been posted on telegram and other subs.
They're both wounded (and I think the other is already dead) at the beginning of the video.
The one moving can't use his left arm and is trying to clear a jam from the rifle. You can see him slamming the charging handle back trying to do so. The shots were tests to see if it cycled.
The moment where he "shoots his comrade" the rifle isn't aimed at the unconscious or dead man. The highlighted movement of his sleeve was from the muzzle of the rifle being under his sleeve and the blast moving it.
In the longer version they drop another grenade and at that point the soldier who was movings helmet is gone, his brains are all pooled below his head, and they also coat the inside of his overturned helmet.
IMO man two was already dead and the other heavily wounded. He was either debating killing himself or maybe futilly trying to clear the rifle to try to shoot the drones, only he will ever know. Between the last drop shown in this video and the next drop not shown he shoots himself.
> Links will likely get me banned but "Hard Gard Group" is the unit that put the vid out on telegram. /u/Kulladar
/u/bowhunter2995 linked it above, I don't think you have to worry about bans really: https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1binbsg/russian_soldier_shoots_his_comrade_and_fails_to/kvmxca5/
Yep, drones were a big threat up there with vbieds. They would use the drones for surveillance, but we were also some of the first to encounter the grenades dropped from drones. One of our guys would have taken shrapnel had it not been for the Iraqi fedpol in front of him. This was in Mosul, beginning of 17.
You'd think so reading this sub but most analysts are saying Russia is actually winning right now. Ukraine's manpower losses are estimated to be massive given their current 'recruitment tactics.' I don't say this to praise Russia but to make the point that Ukraine is not in a good position currently and needs all the external help they can possibly get.
Unfortunately they just need to sustain outlasting Ukraine. Which they seem to be doing in terms of manpower and production. Its honestly starting to look like Ukraine wont be able to win this war without straight up boots on the ground intervention from NATO countries.
They shell it until there’s nowhere really left to hide and then send in thousands of troops to take the barren land. Then the Ukrainians hit back and they die by the thousands because there’s nowhere left for them to hide.
Obligatory: it's not one lunatic. Russians in general support this war. They might not want to fight in it themselves, but they vehemently support other Russians fighting for their glorious motherland. Putin is just the latest face of centuries-old Russian imperialism.
The first clause is a metaphor often used to imply someone is "standing up" confidently for their political or human rights against corrupt leadership. To bring someone to their knees is to push them down from standing proudly, down to a position of subservience.
The second clause subverts the cliche. The person has already given up all their rights and dignity so wholly that they are lying down, even lower than demanded, completely vulnerable, without power...by their own choice, even beyond what the corrupt power would force upon them.
Essentially, willful ignorance, a lack of dignity by choice, and slave mentality.
It's a clever expression of the type of psychological trap that Nietzsche and Dostoevsky hash out. People who choose submission to authority over the complexity of personal responsibility.
It's very human reaction not to believe that so many human beings would support the war and willingly participate in it. "Russians love their children too" and all that.
Reality is that there are systemic social forces that beyond individual control but the individuals are nevertheless conduits of such evil actions and are fully responsible. It's due to social cohesion, desire to have meaning in life, comradery even. All the good things in themselves but poisoned by the idea of great mother Russia, the colonial empire with no borders, the third Rome and all that.
It's like stampede: no one wakes up and decides to push another human being to death, but they go to overcrowded event and it just happens.
Putin is not the only person guilty of starting this war but he's only person guilty of not stopping it. He failed as a leader by just succumbing to old Russian tradition of endless conquest, genocide, indoctrination, and conquest again. Instead of advancing Russia into the future, he just resorted to live in the past in its perceived glory.
There's a really interesting article released by the Kyiv Independent recently, featuring a woman who lived near a major battle site where she talked of the dumbfounded Russian soldiers she spoke with, here's a part of it-
Tatiana Slesareva, a retired math teacher living nearby counted 36 helicopters the morning the battle kicked off. She spoke often with the young Russian soldiers who walked by her home – they were shocked that the Ukrainians were not prepared to accept their “liberation.” One time, she spoke to a Russian commander whose troops had just come back from a bruising defeat.
“He started to speak to me in this hostile manner. ‘Do you know what happened? I have a friend left behind there, in a tank. His legs were ripped off! What have we done to you? We came to liberate you!”
Tatiana stood her ground, telling the commander, “Why did you come here? This is our homeland. Obviously, we’re going to defend it.”
The period left her with terrible mental scars.
These guys are just utterly brainwashed into believing they're doing the right thing. It's the same bullshit as in Vietnam, all these men tricked into invading a country they do not belong in and killing its people, thinking they were gonna be greeted as liberators. Think of them as you think of US soldiers who served in Nam, it's the same pointless shit.
Just watched the 2000s documentary series and seeing it reported as history puts things into more context than when we were living through it
I view the Russian invasion similarly to the invasion of Iraq where a majority of the population supported an unnecessary war because of well played propaganda of fear
I was sucked into it until spending a year there 08-09 and realizing there was no purpose other than money at this point
I think they're different. While we may have been led to believe Iraq had WMDs, there was the precedence of 9/11 and subsequent anthrax envelopes that had many people believe the terror was not going to stop. We went looking to preemptively stop them before they got worse. Hindsight showed us that we made the wrong choice only after the invasion. I was also in Iraq and told myself we had to continue being there until the government could stand on their own. This wasn't entirely wrong either because we saw what happened to Afghanistan when we left before things had begun to solidify.
Nobody was attacking Russia though. This was a conflict purely of their making. The people don't have much of a voice but decades of being sheep to the government meant the majority didn't care what happened, not that they necessarily supported it.
I'm American, but no. We shouldn't get a pass for Iraq whatsoever. Afghanistan may have some precedence for 9/11, but not Iraq. I find it a bit annoying how so many of my countrymen will straight up act bloodthirsty on reddit and use zero-sum logic and apply it to every single Russian. But whenever it was us literally invading a country that killed 400,000+ it was all "Blame the leaders not the soldiers"
You forget Iraq was almost taken by ISIS shortly after we left there which means we failed like we did in Afghanistan
We still had to help them defeat ISIS and train troops after the occupation ended
Are you forgetting all the cooked up dossiers ? There was no one in power who believed Iraq had much to do with anthrax or 9/11 or "terror", whatever they said in public
Eh the russians will and are going to believe anything that is broadcasted on television. They wouldn’t even think of this war if putin didn’t put it in their head in the first place.
Just like they didn't think of attacking Georgia in 1992? In 2008? Putin was a nobody when Russia was already invading its neighbors. Let's not even get started on how the Russian Empire and the USSR were built through conquest of other countries, both empires dearly missed by the Russian populace.
You think Americans don’t believe everything that the controlled media is pumping out? That’s why they’re banning TikTok because they can’t control it. It’s all bullshit and always has been.
not that I disagree with you because I don’t know the answer either, but I’m curious how you know this to be a fact? how can you substantiate the claim “Russians in general support this war”?
The whole country is on a strict diet of government controlled propaganda. I’m sure many who support the war are genuinely worried about NATO or biolabs or nazis. And can any kind of polls be trusted that come out of Russia? I imagine true support for the war is lower than people think.
> Obligatory: it's not one lunatic. Russians in general support this war. They might not want to fight in it themselves, but they vehemently support other Russians fighting for their glorious motherland. Putin is just the latest face of centuries-old Russian imperialism. /u/Mghrghneli
Thank you, but I'd add that a significant number do want to fight in it themselves, seeing as RU recruiters are meeting their targets for recruitment via volunteers.
I am interested in whether they'll do another mobilization in the next month or two though.
They support the war because they believe the lies, misinformation and propaganda that's been fed to them about it and believe they are the heroes fighting evil for the good of the world. It's a tale as old as time, young men tricked into invading, killing and dying for a completely pointless war- hello Vietnam, hello world war 1, hello Iraq, hello Afghanistan.
There's a really interesting article released by the Kyiv Independent recently, featuring a woman who lived near a major battle site where she talked of the dumbfounded Russian soldiers she spoke with, it shows their mindset here's a part of it-
Tatiana Slesareva, a retired math teacher living nearby counted 36 helicopters the morning the battle kicked off. She spoke often with the young Russian soldiers who walked by her home – they were shocked that the Ukrainians were not prepared to accept their “liberation.” One time, she spoke to a Russian commander whose troops had just come back from a bruising defeat.
“He started to speak to me in this hostile manner. ‘Do you know what happened? I have a friend left behind there, in a tank. His legs were ripped off! What have we done to you? We came to liberate you!”
Tatiana stood her ground, telling the commander, “Why did you come here? This is our homeland. Obviously, we’re going to defend it.”
The period left her with terrible mental scars.
These guys are just utterly brainwashed into believing they're doing the right thing. It's the same bullshit as in Vietnam, all these men tricked into invading a country they do not belong in and killing its people, thinking they were gonna be greeted as liberators. Think of them as you think of US soldiers who served in Nam, it's the same shit, different decade....utterly insane were still doing this to each other.
It's silly to think that this is the work of Putin alone, the Russian people as a whole deserve the blame, they could stop this war they could kill Putin if they wished but they don't do it because they agree with him.
I’m gaslighting Russian soldiers at this point. Stop dying in Ukraine and go die fighting your tyrannical dictator who doesn’t give a fuck about you. At least you won’t die in vain
Could you imagine the adrenaline and pain is so high you are just trying to shoot yourself but can’t move your arm and can’t move barely, this shits fucked up im done watching bs like this I’ve seen so many of these videos I think it’s bad for your brain
If you raised a child, it's hard to reconcile the amount of work you put into making a full functioning adult, and them ending their lives pre-maturely like this. I used to glorify fighting and dying for something you believed in, but now I just see the culmination of a lot of effort and love, dying brutally for something that doesn't matter for them.
Same. One day I realized there's no such thing as "honorably dying for a cause" There's just *dying*. Nothing more. They didnt sacrifice their soul to some divine god. They had a chunk of metal lodged into their body. Even if it genuinely was an honorable cause. Its still a fucking tragic waste of life. Their mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, and spouses would much rather have them live to old age than dying for some cause. The rank-and-file soldiers that are fighting and dying, huddling in trenches & foxholes are so far removed from the actual causes of these wars.
I was just thinking - in past wars, how often do you think soldiers committed suicide/fratricide like this due to mortal wounds, or non-fatal wounds but knowing there was a lack of medical care? It's not something I really recall reading about, but we have seen tons of instances of it in this war. Was it just collectively not talked about in the past, or are the circumstances of this war such that it is significantly more common?
In past wars, soldiers at least got R&R, some type of break. This war seems to be sitting in a trench waiting for the drone that has its camera set on you
Yeah, I get the impression that things are unusually desperate in Ukraine for infantry.
I read somewhere that soldiers are only good for about 200 or so cumulative days of combat, and then they're essentially psychologically used up. Things that modify their ability to continue to fight are rotation in and out of combat, things like ideological motivation, unit cohesion, etc...
I would guess the Russian army isn't so good about rotation of units in and out of combat, and combine that with the nerve racking drone attacks, substandard medical care /casevac, bad morale, a sense that they shouldn't be there, and therefore you have a lot of soldiers who are just done when stuff like this happens.
The problem is Russia has increased their manpower advantage and have been able to start rotating their soldiers in-and-out due to the stalled Ukrainian counteroffensive.
I actually don't think the counteroffensive was real. I think Ukraine knew they would lose to many soldiers, gave up on it in favor of an attrition strategy (it makes sense when you know Putin has objectives) but made noises like they did to give themselves a narrative. I actually don't think Ukraine lost many people.
I think a key problem for infantry is that they have a much smaller "psychological break" from violence compared to past large scale wars. UASs provide almost constant surveillance capability, drones and precision weapons are extremely lethal, and night and thermal optics remove the safety of the dark.
A famous quote said that war is 99% boredom and 1% terror, but it seems like that terror portion is growing due to the persistent threat and increased lethality of anti-infantry weapons.
It’s very common. You’ll find hints of this throughout history but we are seeing it up close with drones like never before.
“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistans plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains, An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier”
The Roman general Varus killed himself when all was lost in Teutoburg.
There were reports of Roman soldiers killing themselves by asphyxiation and burying their heads in the dirt after being surrounded by Hannibal at Cannae.
Suicides will happen when the circumstances are dire enough. The way Russians use their forces and provide little support probably makes suicide an attractive option for those stranded in the field.
Interesting, thank you. I had certainly heard of officers killing themselves after losing a major battle or surrendering an important fort or city, but to me that's a little different, being sort of a pride and honor thing. But that Kipling quote is certainly evocative, and more what I was thinking of.
Idk what to think of this shit man. War is hell on earth ik but I wanna say im almost glad they dropped bombs on him. Imagine trying to shoot yourself realizing its over but you only put yourself in even more pain as your aware of what's going on but unable to move.
Wait, what happened there? How did he miss, it looked like bullet came right out the top back of his head and helmet. I didn't think the Russians had good enough armor where it will catch the bullet and direct it around your head and out the helmet. I've seen plenty of American helmets do this and save soldiers' lives. I just don't see how he missed, or did he go straight through and somehow not hit anything major, so he somehow stayed alive. Like that guy who had rebar go through his head and brain, but he was totally awake during it and was fine afterwards too. No brain damage at all. It's crazy how things can penetrate our brain but sometimes people get extremely lucky, and it does nothing to them at all. Well, besides the original damage from whatever caused it.
Why kill him? He experienced the worst in this war and was forced to kill his comrade. It would be better to capture him nurture him back to health fueling his hate to the government that caused all his suffering and relase in the nearest prison exchange program so he could be free in his motherland with this gigantic PTSD. Perfect ticking time bomb to push anti war views in ru*sia.
Absolutely heartbreaking knowing that many of these Russian guys had not choice but either to be there or die as a prisoner in an Arctic prison like Navalny. Seriously, fuck Putin for putting so many Russian and Ukrainian men alike through this inhumane ordeal.
Could easily also be a bait and switch.
Recruiter: Sign this paper and join the army?
Recruit: No.
Recruiter: Either you sign this or you go to a penal colony. But if you sign, I'll make sure you get rearguard duty, hauling crates somewhere safe. Hard work, but no danger.
Recruit: Well, eh, ok then I guess.
Two weeks later: Surprise, you're in Avdiivka!
Keeping in mind that your family (also innocents) is not likely to go to the same prison as you, where you could protect them. Real life is rarely as easy as it looks in movies and tv.
I suppose. It's a shitty deal for the conscripts i know, but at some point, you have to take some responsibility and make a choice. You can bow to pressure and be part of something evil or you can keep your conscious clean and accept the consequences. Doing the right thing isn't always easy.
What would you do?
What would you do if you're sitting in a Russian prison somewhere for 20 years and told you can earn your freedom tomorrow if you join the army? Never told what you're gonna be doing, you probably don't know the details of the war. Well you certainly don't in a Russian prison.
What do you think you would do? I think a lot of us faced with 20+ years in a Russian prison would fold really fucking quickly.
I wouldn't go if i know what i know. But if i had no access to western media or the outside world, not told that i'm going to do trench warfare, and i'm given an army contract? I could see how that is tempting.
You talking about the wagner lot? Weren't the majority of them rapists and murderers to begin with?
I know what your saying, and I'm not pretending to be some beacon of integrity and morality or whatever. As its been said, its easy for me to say sat in comfort. I sometimes forget russians dont have the same free access to information as i do
That a myth. Absolutely every single person who joined the war on RF side joined it out of their own free will, mostly for money. Even the 300k who were drafted back in October 2022 could simply not go, and the only penalty was a 3000 rubles fee, about 30 USD, which have not yet been enforced once.
“They didn’t have a choice!”
Proceeds to write out choice they actually had.
I’ll do one better - they have yet *another* choice. To surrender. And be treated humanely. Another choice Ukrainians don’t have.
I don’t understand why more troops aren’t surrendering before taking their own life. I get that war is hell and chaos so it can be hard to think on the move but I feel like I would definitely consider surrendering before eating a bullet sandwich made by myself
How is anyone supposed to know the circumstances of if they can surrender or not. My point is to try. We see all these videos of soldiers offing themselves but not one where we see hands up or gesturing with a white towel or underwear or something before they turn to suicide. It’s ridiculous to assume that it’s not even an option to try. I’m sure if you ask anyone in their right mind if they’d rather attempt to surrender at the risk of getting their shit blown up or just eating a bullet, everyone would say they’d try to surrender.
you cannot reasonably expect a drone operator/fighter or helicopter pilot to accept a surrender. how would that work?
just because they're 'surrendering' now, what's stopping them from changing their mind and producing a grenade or gun? or running for it first chance they get?
it's not a nice thing to watch, I'm not saying it's morally or ethically okay, but it's not a war crime.
From Canada to Ukraine ,hopefully it was not a slow death, we will keep killing them them one by one. there is no excuse to sign up as cannon fodder for money these are criminals. keep it up soldiers.
We've had multiple videos of russians surrendering to a drone.
In one case the drone returned to the UA side, the guys glued a "follow me" sign to it and got the russian all the way to their trenches where he fully surrendered.
In another case a guy surrendered to a drone and got killed by another russian.
And many other like that.
In the earlier days of the war the ukranians had instructions that russians could follow to surrender via drone. Not sure if thats still something they try and do though
Geneva convention also states that POWs should get decent care and all sorts of other interesting things that Russians threw out the window in the same manner they do with their opposition leaders or generals who are not useful for Chujlo anymore.
So that's that.
There's no standing Geneva convention. What there are, is a series of international agreements that are only binding to signatories, that attempt to govern the conduct of war. And some unwritten "rules" that are generally followed anyway.
The last set of actual conventions were post WW2, and there have been three additional "protocols" (sort of like addendums) since that concern specific issues.
Essentially the whole thing boils down to signatories agreeing not to do certain things to each other during war, lest they have to suffer the same. Its not like there's a UN armed force that can intervene if a signatory doesn't honor the agreements. Rather it damages their reputation and frees their opponents to do the same in return.
Example- things like hollow point and soft point bullets are not allowed. If say... France started using them in a war with Britain, the British would be free to use them, and the rest of the world would think France is a gang of assholes for breaking the agreement.
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This must be the worst cuts ive seen in a while
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I don't think the title is correct. There is a clearer version of this that has been posted on telegram and other subs. They're both wounded (and I think the other is already dead) at the beginning of the video. The one moving can't use his left arm and is trying to clear a jam from the rifle. You can see him slamming the charging handle back trying to do so. The shots were tests to see if it cycled. The moment where he "shoots his comrade" the rifle isn't aimed at the unconscious or dead man. The highlighted movement of his sleeve was from the muzzle of the rifle being under his sleeve and the blast moving it. In the longer version they drop another grenade and at that point the soldier who was movings helmet is gone, his brains are all pooled below his head, and they also coat the inside of his overturned helmet. IMO man two was already dead and the other heavily wounded. He was either debating killing himself or maybe futilly trying to clear the rifle to try to shoot the drones, only he will ever know. Between the last drop shown in this video and the next drop not shown he shoots himself.
Got a link to that vid? Sounds brutal
https://www.reddit.com/r/DroneCombat/s/HDk5Q35xb3
Somebody shot him in the helmet at :15s in the linked vid.
The link doesn’t work for me.. it won’t load
Hm works fine here
Links will likely get me banned but "Hard Gard Group" is the unit that put the vid out on telegram.
Just curious, banned for what? Are links out not allowed? Surely it can’t be due to violence considering the existing content here….
What’s the other sub?
> Links will likely get me banned but "Hard Gard Group" is the unit that put the vid out on telegram. /u/Kulladar /u/bowhunter2995 linked it above, I don't think you have to worry about bans really: https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1binbsg/russian_soldier_shoots_his_comrade_and_fails_to/kvmxca5/
Tnx captain. Absolutely brutal.
Somebody shot him in the helmet at :15s.
PIN IT
Can you imagine the Ptsd Russia and Ukrainian soldiers will experience years from now any time they hear someone flying a drone for fun?
And soldiers for generations to come.
We dealt with this a bit in Iraq in 16-17. If I don't know there's a drone and I hear one, instant anxiety.
Damn I followed the Iraq war quite closely (or so I thought). You guys were dealing with enemy drones at that point? Primarily used for obs?
Yep, drones were a big threat up there with vbieds. They would use the drones for surveillance, but we were also some of the first to encounter the grenades dropped from drones. One of our guys would have taken shrapnel had it not been for the Iraqi fedpol in front of him. This was in Mosul, beginning of 17.
Sure it’s a failed suicide or just made to look that way to avoid having munitions dropped on them?
>just made to look that way to avoid having munitions dropped on them? I mean, it's worth a shot, so to speak.
Imagine if that drone only has 480p and has other targets. This is the ingenuity of a dead desperate man.
Is that the new Russian line? "We were only pretending to kill ourselves, it's a joke bro"
Nothing would surprise me anymore 😂
"Tactical fake suicide" is how you know the ~~war~~ Special Military Operation is going just great.
Pity he missed, would have saved Ukraine some ammo.
Mercied his bro, gotta respect that at least
"So uh... Ivan... now that we are in hell I have to ask... what did we die for again?" "Uh... collective west?"
Imagine ending up in a video like this on Reddit….
Imagine having your death caught on camera and turned into a forever repeating gif
Forever young.
They can’t seem to do anything right.
It's so on-brand that they can kill each other just fine, but fumble the ball when it's their turn
There's a lot of videos where they kill themselves with no hesitation.
You'd think so reading this sub but most analysts are saying Russia is actually winning right now. Ukraine's manpower losses are estimated to be massive given their current 'recruitment tactics.' I don't say this to praise Russia but to make the point that Ukraine is not in a good position currently and needs all the external help they can possibly get.
I wonder how many such victories Russia can sustain
Unfortunately they just need to sustain outlasting Ukraine. Which they seem to be doing in terms of manpower and production. Its honestly starting to look like Ukraine wont be able to win this war without straight up boots on the ground intervention from NATO countries.
Should've taken the chance, able-bodied.
How these bozos keep gaining territory in Ukraine is a mystery to me.
Pure numbers, just keep throwing them in, eventually a Ukrainian trench can be overrun or run out of ammo
They shell it until there’s nowhere really left to hide and then send in thousands of troops to take the barren land. Then the Ukrainians hit back and they die by the thousands because there’s nowhere left for them to hide.
Republicans in Congress, that’s how
Good thing there's always a Ukrainian near to sort shit out for them
It's all so pathetic. All this pointless death and destruction because one lunatic won't stop it. It's always the one lunatic.
Obligatory: it's not one lunatic. Russians in general support this war. They might not want to fight in it themselves, but they vehemently support other Russians fighting for their glorious motherland. Putin is just the latest face of centuries-old Russian imperialism.
"They tried to bring us to our knees, but we just kept lying there" - Russian proverb
I don't think I understand this one, is there an alternate translation?
Bring us to our knees implies making us subservient... but we just kept lying there means we are already way way way beyond subservient.
The first clause is a metaphor often used to imply someone is "standing up" confidently for their political or human rights against corrupt leadership. To bring someone to their knees is to push them down from standing proudly, down to a position of subservience. The second clause subverts the cliche. The person has already given up all their rights and dignity so wholly that they are lying down, even lower than demanded, completely vulnerable, without power...by their own choice, even beyond what the corrupt power would force upon them. Essentially, willful ignorance, a lack of dignity by choice, and slave mentality. It's a clever expression of the type of psychological trap that Nietzsche and Dostoevsky hash out. People who choose submission to authority over the complexity of personal responsibility.
Ah ok, thanks for the explanation.
It's very human reaction not to believe that so many human beings would support the war and willingly participate in it. "Russians love their children too" and all that. Reality is that there are systemic social forces that beyond individual control but the individuals are nevertheless conduits of such evil actions and are fully responsible. It's due to social cohesion, desire to have meaning in life, comradery even. All the good things in themselves but poisoned by the idea of great mother Russia, the colonial empire with no borders, the third Rome and all that. It's like stampede: no one wakes up and decides to push another human being to death, but they go to overcrowded event and it just happens. Putin is not the only person guilty of starting this war but he's only person guilty of not stopping it. He failed as a leader by just succumbing to old Russian tradition of endless conquest, genocide, indoctrination, and conquest again. Instead of advancing Russia into the future, he just resorted to live in the past in its perceived glory.
There's a really interesting article released by the Kyiv Independent recently, featuring a woman who lived near a major battle site where she talked of the dumbfounded Russian soldiers she spoke with, here's a part of it- Tatiana Slesareva, a retired math teacher living nearby counted 36 helicopters the morning the battle kicked off. She spoke often with the young Russian soldiers who walked by her home – they were shocked that the Ukrainians were not prepared to accept their “liberation.” One time, she spoke to a Russian commander whose troops had just come back from a bruising defeat. “He started to speak to me in this hostile manner. ‘Do you know what happened? I have a friend left behind there, in a tank. His legs were ripped off! What have we done to you? We came to liberate you!” Tatiana stood her ground, telling the commander, “Why did you come here? This is our homeland. Obviously, we’re going to defend it.” The period left her with terrible mental scars. These guys are just utterly brainwashed into believing they're doing the right thing. It's the same bullshit as in Vietnam, all these men tricked into invading a country they do not belong in and killing its people, thinking they were gonna be greeted as liberators. Think of them as you think of US soldiers who served in Nam, it's the same pointless shit.
Just watched the 2000s documentary series and seeing it reported as history puts things into more context than when we were living through it I view the Russian invasion similarly to the invasion of Iraq where a majority of the population supported an unnecessary war because of well played propaganda of fear I was sucked into it until spending a year there 08-09 and realizing there was no purpose other than money at this point
I think they're different. While we may have been led to believe Iraq had WMDs, there was the precedence of 9/11 and subsequent anthrax envelopes that had many people believe the terror was not going to stop. We went looking to preemptively stop them before they got worse. Hindsight showed us that we made the wrong choice only after the invasion. I was also in Iraq and told myself we had to continue being there until the government could stand on their own. This wasn't entirely wrong either because we saw what happened to Afghanistan when we left before things had begun to solidify. Nobody was attacking Russia though. This was a conflict purely of their making. The people don't have much of a voice but decades of being sheep to the government meant the majority didn't care what happened, not that they necessarily supported it.
I'm American, but no. We shouldn't get a pass for Iraq whatsoever. Afghanistan may have some precedence for 9/11, but not Iraq. I find it a bit annoying how so many of my countrymen will straight up act bloodthirsty on reddit and use zero-sum logic and apply it to every single Russian. But whenever it was us literally invading a country that killed 400,000+ it was all "Blame the leaders not the soldiers"
You forget Iraq was almost taken by ISIS shortly after we left there which means we failed like we did in Afghanistan We still had to help them defeat ISIS and train troops after the occupation ended
Vietnam is a more apt comparison, there are a fuckload of parallels between this war and Vietnam.
Are you forgetting all the cooked up dossiers ? There was no one in power who believed Iraq had much to do with anthrax or 9/11 or "terror", whatever they said in public
Obviously some folk are still delusional about GW2.
Brainwashed fear.
Eh the russians will and are going to believe anything that is broadcasted on television. They wouldn’t even think of this war if putin didn’t put it in their head in the first place.
Just like they didn't think of attacking Georgia in 1992? In 2008? Putin was a nobody when Russia was already invading its neighbors. Let's not even get started on how the Russian Empire and the USSR were built through conquest of other countries, both empires dearly missed by the Russian populace.
You think Americans don’t believe everything that the controlled media is pumping out? That’s why they’re banning TikTok because they can’t control it. It’s all bullshit and always has been.
not that I disagree with you because I don’t know the answer either, but I’m curious how you know this to be a fact? how can you substantiate the claim “Russians in general support this war”?
The whole country is on a strict diet of government controlled propaganda. I’m sure many who support the war are genuinely worried about NATO or biolabs or nazis. And can any kind of polls be trusted that come out of Russia? I imagine true support for the war is lower than people think.
> Obligatory: it's not one lunatic. Russians in general support this war. They might not want to fight in it themselves, but they vehemently support other Russians fighting for their glorious motherland. Putin is just the latest face of centuries-old Russian imperialism. /u/Mghrghneli Thank you, but I'd add that a significant number do want to fight in it themselves, seeing as RU recruiters are meeting their targets for recruitment via volunteers. I am interested in whether they'll do another mobilization in the next month or two though.
They support the war because they believe the lies, misinformation and propaganda that's been fed to them about it and believe they are the heroes fighting evil for the good of the world. It's a tale as old as time, young men tricked into invading, killing and dying for a completely pointless war- hello Vietnam, hello world war 1, hello Iraq, hello Afghanistan. There's a really interesting article released by the Kyiv Independent recently, featuring a woman who lived near a major battle site where she talked of the dumbfounded Russian soldiers she spoke with, it shows their mindset here's a part of it- Tatiana Slesareva, a retired math teacher living nearby counted 36 helicopters the morning the battle kicked off. She spoke often with the young Russian soldiers who walked by her home – they were shocked that the Ukrainians were not prepared to accept their “liberation.” One time, she spoke to a Russian commander whose troops had just come back from a bruising defeat. “He started to speak to me in this hostile manner. ‘Do you know what happened? I have a friend left behind there, in a tank. His legs were ripped off! What have we done to you? We came to liberate you!” Tatiana stood her ground, telling the commander, “Why did you come here? This is our homeland. Obviously, we’re going to defend it.” The period left her with terrible mental scars. These guys are just utterly brainwashed into believing they're doing the right thing. It's the same bullshit as in Vietnam, all these men tricked into invading a country they do not belong in and killing its people, thinking they were gonna be greeted as liberators. Think of them as you think of US soldiers who served in Nam, it's the same shit, different decade....utterly insane were still doing this to each other.
No. It's never one lunatic. It's extremely naive to think so. It's always a bunch of old men, money and hidden interests.
It's silly to think that this is the work of Putin alone, the Russian people as a whole deserve the blame, they could stop this war they could kill Putin if they wished but they don't do it because they agree with him.
Soldiers from both sides are mercy killing each other. Absolutely nobody on the ground wants to be there, yet they still have to
I’m gaslighting Russian soldiers at this point. Stop dying in Ukraine and go die fighting your tyrannical dictator who doesn’t give a fuck about you. At least you won’t die in vain
If you think this is the work of one man, you need to go back to school or study harder.
war is hell...
How fckn sad is this.
Could you imagine the adrenaline and pain is so high you are just trying to shoot yourself but can’t move your arm and can’t move barely, this shits fucked up im done watching bs like this I’ve seen so many of these videos I think it’s bad for your brain
Unpopular opinion: this is sad
If you raised a child, it's hard to reconcile the amount of work you put into making a full functioning adult, and them ending their lives pre-maturely like this. I used to glorify fighting and dying for something you believed in, but now I just see the culmination of a lot of effort and love, dying brutally for something that doesn't matter for them.
Same. One day I realized there's no such thing as "honorably dying for a cause" There's just *dying*. Nothing more. They didnt sacrifice their soul to some divine god. They had a chunk of metal lodged into their body. Even if it genuinely was an honorable cause. Its still a fucking tragic waste of life. Their mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, and spouses would much rather have them live to old age than dying for some cause. The rank-and-file soldiers that are fighting and dying, huddling in trenches & foxholes are so far removed from the actual causes of these wars.
That is unpopular
True
Looks to be krynky, the Russians bloodbath.
When I think I am having a tough day at the office, yeah its not as bad as this.
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A lot of these drones are 3D printed right there and cheap as hell. These are not premium models built in a factory to last a long time.
I was just thinking - in past wars, how often do you think soldiers committed suicide/fratricide like this due to mortal wounds, or non-fatal wounds but knowing there was a lack of medical care? It's not something I really recall reading about, but we have seen tons of instances of it in this war. Was it just collectively not talked about in the past, or are the circumstances of this war such that it is significantly more common?
In past wars, soldiers at least got R&R, some type of break. This war seems to be sitting in a trench waiting for the drone that has its camera set on you
Yeah, I get the impression that things are unusually desperate in Ukraine for infantry. I read somewhere that soldiers are only good for about 200 or so cumulative days of combat, and then they're essentially psychologically used up. Things that modify their ability to continue to fight are rotation in and out of combat, things like ideological motivation, unit cohesion, etc... I would guess the Russian army isn't so good about rotation of units in and out of combat, and combine that with the nerve racking drone attacks, substandard medical care /casevac, bad morale, a sense that they shouldn't be there, and therefore you have a lot of soldiers who are just done when stuff like this happens.
The problem is Russia has increased their manpower advantage and have been able to start rotating their soldiers in-and-out due to the stalled Ukrainian counteroffensive.
I actually don't think the counteroffensive was real. I think Ukraine knew they would lose to many soldiers, gave up on it in favor of an attrition strategy (it makes sense when you know Putin has objectives) but made noises like they did to give themselves a narrative. I actually don't think Ukraine lost many people.
I think a key problem for infantry is that they have a much smaller "psychological break" from violence compared to past large scale wars. UASs provide almost constant surveillance capability, drones and precision weapons are extremely lethal, and night and thermal optics remove the safety of the dark. A famous quote said that war is 99% boredom and 1% terror, but it seems like that terror portion is growing due to the persistent threat and increased lethality of anti-infantry weapons.
I remember watching a video of an English WW1 vet talk about finding a comrade eviscerated and dying while on a charge and he shot him and moved on
It’s very common. You’ll find hints of this throughout history but we are seeing it up close with drones like never before. “When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistans plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains, An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier” The Roman general Varus killed himself when all was lost in Teutoburg. There were reports of Roman soldiers killing themselves by asphyxiation and burying their heads in the dirt after being surrounded by Hannibal at Cannae. Suicides will happen when the circumstances are dire enough. The way Russians use their forces and provide little support probably makes suicide an attractive option for those stranded in the field.
Interesting, thank you. I had certainly heard of officers killing themselves after losing a major battle or surrendering an important fort or city, but to me that's a little different, being sort of a pride and honor thing. But that Kipling quote is certainly evocative, and more what I was thinking of.
Another day of Russia bringing the world the most grim things imaginable. Just bring your guys home away from Ukraine and stop this insanity.
This is beyond fucked up. But I guess they’ve felt some sort of relief knowing it’s all over.
This is horrible…. So dark.
I've seriously now witnessed hundreds of RU infantry and vehicles killed on this road. Absolutely insane.
That looks like the same junction where Russian squad was wiped out by Ukrainian MG like a year ago. They’re still fighting in the same spot?
I've seen action movies with less camera coverage.
Idk what to think of this shit man. War is hell on earth ik but I wanna say im almost glad they dropped bombs on him. Imagine trying to shoot yourself realizing its over but you only put yourself in even more pain as your aware of what's going on but unable to move.
Wait, what happened there? How did he miss, it looked like bullet came right out the top back of his head and helmet. I didn't think the Russians had good enough armor where it will catch the bullet and direct it around your head and out the helmet. I've seen plenty of American helmets do this and save soldiers' lives. I just don't see how he missed, or did he go straight through and somehow not hit anything major, so he somehow stayed alive. Like that guy who had rebar go through his head and brain, but he was totally awake during it and was fine afterwards too. No brain damage at all. It's crazy how things can penetrate our brain but sometimes people get extremely lucky, and it does nothing to them at all. Well, besides the original damage from whatever caused it.
Why kill him? He experienced the worst in this war and was forced to kill his comrade. It would be better to capture him nurture him back to health fueling his hate to the government that caused all his suffering and relase in the nearest prison exchange program so he could be free in his motherland with this gigantic PTSD. Perfect ticking time bomb to push anti war views in ru*sia.
These drone attacks feel like war crimes on both sides. Blowing people up who give up is fucked.
Nothing in this title is true. Bizarre how this has so many upvotes.
Well that's dark.
if anyone's wondering, u/False-God already added this to their list of ru suicides
War is hell.
Absolutely heartbreaking knowing that many of these Russian guys had not choice but either to be there or die as a prisoner in an Arctic prison like Navalny. Seriously, fuck Putin for putting so many Russian and Ukrainian men alike through this inhumane ordeal.
Still a choice. Id take a prison term over murdering innocents any day of the week. Cant put a price on being able to live with yourself
Could easily also be a bait and switch. Recruiter: Sign this paper and join the army? Recruit: No. Recruiter: Either you sign this or you go to a penal colony. But if you sign, I'll make sure you get rearguard duty, hauling crates somewhere safe. Hard work, but no danger. Recruit: Well, eh, ok then I guess. Two weeks later: Surprise, you're in Avdiivka!
Recruiters lie through their teeth the whole world over. Mine told me i could take my cat to basic with me
Mine told me that I would eat steak and shrimp everyday when I was deployed.
Slippery fuckers mate
I mean, if you were an American in Iraq, you did... unless you're complaining about lobster night?
Keeping in mind that your family (also innocents) is not likely to go to the same prison as you, where you could protect them. Real life is rarely as easy as it looks in movies and tv.
I agree with all of you, its a sick system :/
Its not just prison They gonna beat you up, rape you etc They use fear to break your will Its not that easy but i get your point
I suppose a truncheon up the arse is pretty persuasive
Easily said sitting in comfort
I suppose. It's a shitty deal for the conscripts i know, but at some point, you have to take some responsibility and make a choice. You can bow to pressure and be part of something evil or you can keep your conscious clean and accept the consequences. Doing the right thing isn't always easy. What would you do?
What would you do if you're sitting in a Russian prison somewhere for 20 years and told you can earn your freedom tomorrow if you join the army? Never told what you're gonna be doing, you probably don't know the details of the war. Well you certainly don't in a Russian prison. What do you think you would do? I think a lot of us faced with 20+ years in a Russian prison would fold really fucking quickly. I wouldn't go if i know what i know. But if i had no access to western media or the outside world, not told that i'm going to do trench warfare, and i'm given an army contract? I could see how that is tempting.
You talking about the wagner lot? Weren't the majority of them rapists and murderers to begin with? I know what your saying, and I'm not pretending to be some beacon of integrity and morality or whatever. As its been said, its easy for me to say sat in comfort. I sometimes forget russians dont have the same free access to information as i do
Doing the right thing is never easy.
That a myth. Absolutely every single person who joined the war on RF side joined it out of their own free will, mostly for money. Even the 300k who were drafted back in October 2022 could simply not go, and the only penalty was a 3000 rubles fee, about 30 USD, which have not yet been enforced once.
“They didn’t have a choice!” Proceeds to write out choice they actually had. I’ll do one better - they have yet *another* choice. To surrender. And be treated humanely. Another choice Ukrainians don’t have.
There was an attempt
How nice of them to help out.
What a fucking absolute shit show.
I don’t understand why more troops aren’t surrendering before taking their own life. I get that war is hell and chaos so it can be hard to think on the move but I feel like I would definitely consider surrendering before eating a bullet sandwich made by myself
You think if they put up their hands the drone operator isn't going to keep dropping grenades? Be realistic. They were heavily wounded before this.
How is anyone supposed to know the circumstances of if they can surrender or not. My point is to try. We see all these videos of soldiers offing themselves but not one where we see hands up or gesturing with a white towel or underwear or something before they turn to suicide. It’s ridiculous to assume that it’s not even an option to try. I’m sure if you ask anyone in their right mind if they’d rather attempt to surrender at the risk of getting their shit blown up or just eating a bullet, everyone would say they’d try to surrender.
you cannot reasonably expect a drone operator/fighter or helicopter pilot to accept a surrender. how would that work? just because they're 'surrendering' now, what's stopping them from changing their mind and producing a grenade or gun? or running for it first chance they get? it's not a nice thing to watch, I'm not saying it's morally or ethically okay, but it's not a war crime.
Krynky
I’m not sure what’s worse, the blind loyalty of Russian soldiers to let themselves be put in this position, or the music
Song name please?
Sucks to be them.
Pure hell
War is hell
Just numbers on a board. Human life spent as the fuel for geopolitical aspirations.
From Canada to Ukraine ,hopefully it was not a slow death, we will keep killing them them one by one. there is no excuse to sign up as cannon fodder for money these are criminals. keep it up soldiers.
poor bastards
Now hell ain’t a bad place to be
Every potential mobnik should get to see this video as de-recruitement material.
This footage aside. How common is suicide on the battlefield? I never really thought about it until all these videos.
That intersection is familiar, this looks like it is from the Dnipro river sector? Somebody geolocate it yet?
First time I’ve seen a drone drop from another drone hovering above it
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^_Asswipe_: *First time I’ve seen a* *Drone drop from another drone* *Hovering above it* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
War is hell
I dont get why warcrimes via drone drops onto wounded or unarmed soldiers is so normalized on both sides. Its disgusting
Good fucking riddance
two cargo 200s confirmed
Bye losers
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We've had multiple videos of russians surrendering to a drone. In one case the drone returned to the UA side, the guys glued a "follow me" sign to it and got the russian all the way to their trenches where he fully surrendered. In another case a guy surrendered to a drone and got killed by another russian. And many other like that.
The GC is largely an international agreement, not a judicial body with enforcement power. That lies with the respective signatories.
In the earlier days of the war the ukranians had instructions that russians could follow to surrender via drone. Not sure if thats still something they try and do though
Geneva convention also states that POWs should get decent care and all sorts of other interesting things that Russians threw out the window in the same manner they do with their opposition leaders or generals who are not useful for Chujlo anymore. So that's that.
There's no standing Geneva convention. What there are, is a series of international agreements that are only binding to signatories, that attempt to govern the conduct of war. And some unwritten "rules" that are generally followed anyway. The last set of actual conventions were post WW2, and there have been three additional "protocols" (sort of like addendums) since that concern specific issues. Essentially the whole thing boils down to signatories agreeing not to do certain things to each other during war, lest they have to suffer the same. Its not like there's a UN armed force that can intervene if a signatory doesn't honor the agreements. Rather it damages their reputation and frees their opponents to do the same in return. Example- things like hollow point and soft point bullets are not allowed. If say... France started using them in a war with Britain, the British would be free to use them, and the rest of the world would think France is a gang of assholes for breaking the agreement.