A young Russian soldier tried to blow himself up, because their commanders told them not to surrender to Ukrainian forces. He survived to tell his story. (Video in the comments below.)
The Russian commanders tell their soldiers that it’s better for them to blow themselves up with a grenade if they are being surrendered – because otherwise, commanders threatened, they would be horribly tortured.
This young man and his mate decided to follow their commanders’ advice – but luckily for them, they weren’t successful and only got wounded.
The Ukrainians who captured them brought the Russian medic, part of the same unit, who was also captured, to attend to the wounds properly. Then they transported the wounded captives to a hospital.
It’s been known for a while that Russian soldiers are advised to blow themselves up in case they are about to be captured. Some soldiers even do it when they are being attacked by a drone.
The issue with this isn’t only the certain loss of life, but also the soldiers who do it are not eligible for the 5 million ruble ($56,000) death payout. If the self-blow recorded on video, the family will be denied the payout, because it’s considered self-harm, and not a death in combat.
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Still, the commanders keep telling scary lies to their soldiers (they don’t tell them about cancelled death payouts). Probably, because they fear that otherwise soldiers will be surrendering en masse.
Mass surrender is what’s been happening in the Kursk region since the Ukrainians invaded.
Videos where the Russian soldiers mass-surrender are all over the social networks, with new videos popping up daily.
One explanation of that: Kursk region had a large number of Kadyrov’s guys (“Akmat” units) stationed there “to guard the border”. They are known for their cruelty to Russian soldiers from non-Akhmat units, with rapes of young Russian conscripts being a “norm” that’s accepted and not even worth complaining about.
Russian soldiers may be more terrified to be shot by Kadyrov’s guys for not wanting to fight (“Akhmat” is also used as “barrier troops” that shoot deserters) than by their prospects at the Ukrainian captivity.
Fear is how Putin’s goons rule.
