Fucking bleak.
I get why …but like fuck war. Fuck drones as weapons. That’s fucked up dude. Wish that guys after life is better than what he dealt with here on earth.
I was saying similar to a coworker. Watching these vids made me glad I couldn’t sign up when I was younger. The idea of just chilling in a trench/foxhole in the middle of nowhere and then suddenly a drone can appear and start blowing your guys up. Fuck that.
You ever watch the beginning of metal Gear solid 4? That’s the soon to be future of war. Some poor dude with a shitty AK, getting attacked by one of those Boston dynamic style robots with AI and mounted weapons.
I can guarantee you for the first volley of those grenades dropping you have no idea where or what it is. Cause you can’t hear those things 150ft up in the air. Pass.
Why suicide I don’t get it
They’re afraid of being treated in a Ukranian POW camp the way they treat Ukranian prisoners
Source: I’m pulling this out of my ass.
Russians are probably telling them how bad PoW get treated by Ukrainians, so their soldiers prefer suicide to being a PoW.
The less PoW Ukraine has, the less power they have in prisoner exchange agreements.
Similar source.
I would also question Russian ability and desire to evacuate wounded - would it be better than a slow death.
Nah, they don’t want to get taken prisoner because Russia has been executing their own so they do not allow themselves to be captured.
They can kill themselves or they can go pow and fully expect to be killed when they get home.
I’d rather do it while I still had the ability rather than wait for a drone to blow me apart one dropped munition at a time or bleed out from agonising shrapnel wounds. Especially if I were conscripted and not serving because I wanted to.
I haven’t checked, but are Ukrainians taking hostages at this point? Like, if he laid down arms and surrendered, would Ukraine take him in? I know they were at one point and I also know is can be very dangerous to claim surrendered soldiers too, depending on the context.
They aren’t ‘hostages’. They are prisoners of war.
Edit: They are required by international law to take POWs if they surrender properly, so yes they take POWs
Drones can’t take prisoners when they’re way behind enemy lines. Normal face-to-face combat allows for surrender, but how can a drone take control of an enemy combatant who surrenders 5 miles behind the lines? That’s why you see drones killing the wounded and unarmed. Until they are dead they are an enemy asset that is irretrievable. It’s the same reason abandoned enemy equipment is destroyed. If it can’t be captured, you don’t want the enemy to fix it up and continue using it.
Most Russian soldiers know they can surrender, but they risk being shot by their own troops. Many have families back in Russia who would suffer if they surrender. Some have no idea where the Ukrainian lines are, and walking around way behind the lines is an invitation to the drones. Others have bought into the Russian propoganda about life as a prisoner of war in Ukraine. And some just have too much machismo to surrender. They’d rather die. Surrenders typically happen when there’s close combat.
Early on I saw videos of people surrendering to drones but I haven’t seen a recent video like that since so I wasn’t sure if the situation changed that much. You definitely explained a lot, thanks.
They’re still surrendering. But it’s not the kind of video that generates donations. Ukraine has been operating the “I want to live” surrender hotline since 2022. Soldiers are given instructions via phone, text, Telegram, or the website on how to signal a drone with their intention to surrender.
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