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Wouldn’t arming your POWs, and grouping them in a battalion, be a risk?
What is Russia doing to prevent this group from staging a mutiny and turning their guns on their captors? I imagine the Russians have some sort of leverage over these poor folks.
It's a Russian battalion....
Even if they have guns they're not functional and don't have ammo.
They'll just be dressed up like a typical Russian soldier and told if they don't run at Ukrainian defenses, they'll be shot.
If they die, Russians get to see where the defenses are.
If the Ukrainians hesitate to see if they're POWs, then they might hesitate every time a wave runs up. Or another patch of POWs might have a backpack with a bomb in it.
"Hey we thought we weren't committing enough war crimes, and we sure as shit aren't gonna let Israel beat us... MORE!"
Surely the race to the bottom gets more heated with the more contenders joining in.
Blocking battalions has been standard Russian operating procedure during the war, using them and whatever other coercion they have against POWs and now you have a 'fighting' force good enough to draw out positions.
They must have members of their family hostage or something. Otherwise I don't see how that would even work.
You. Run towards the front line.
If you don't, I shoot you in the stomach now then torture you until you die. You never see your family and friends again.
If you do, you'll probably be shot and killed, but who knows? If you surrender at the right time, you might make it home. Probably not. But maybe?
I'm sure it's easy behind a keyboard to think you'd be strong after being a POW given those choices. But you wouldn't. If you would, you'd have been tortured to death already.
It's not a video game. It's not a movie. You're not a main character.
I don't know why I feel like I'm being criticized.
I'm not saying that what's reported isn't possible or isn't real. I just don't know how that tactic would work.
Everyone's given me some pretty good suggestions though. So I better understand how they could have pulled it off.
All I know is there's got to be some cruelty involved to convince POWs to do that.
A lot of cruelty actually.
Earlier in the war a Wagner fighter who had surrendered was traded back. Wagner then posted a video online showing them killing him with a sledgehammer. Just to convey the message to other fighters that surrender is not an option.
In the mean time the soldiers used as barrier forces (that prevent soldiers from retreating) are Islamic extremists under control of Kadyrov. Look him up, remember all the joyful things Isis did in Syria and then imagine these are your "allies".
So much cruelty...
Fucking hell .....
I think you underestimate Russian cruelty. A country that can normalize sending its citizens into an absolute meat grinder has no problems being beyond barbaric with its POWs. I have no doubt Ukranian prisoners are suffering a fate even worse than we can imagine. In circumstances like that suddenly it might just be worth it to accept your fate being killed by your countrymen. Hell maybe you can even get back to them.
The Germans did the same thing in ww2 and in many instances the soldiers either killed their captors or surrendered the first chance they could.
They're warm bodies that you dress up in Russian uniforms and throw at Ukrainian defenses.
If the Ukrainians shoot them, you know where the defenses are. If the "battalion" tries anything other than running at Ukrainians, they get shot by Russians.
Note that Ukrinform is Ukranian state media.
We have video of them doing this already with Ukrainian soldiers.
This is how you get your junior officers fragged.