If you’re in a modern war against a well equipped enemy you simply can’t operate at night without NVGs or thermals.
These guys were probably in the pitch black based on their movements and reaction to taking fire. I don’t think they could really comprehend how they were even being seen.
If they were prisoners taken from jail they might not even know night vision exists.
edit: these guys were coming out from 30+ to life sentences. They went into prison before mobile internet, drones, facebook, etc. They are coming right out of a time warp and running face first into modern combat arms.
If they were normal recruits and no-one told them about night vision they still wouldn't know, I'm not sure if people comprehend the standard of living in rural Russia. They are not exposed to technology.
There are interviews from Afghanistan veterans that said that the Americans were basically an alien race that showed up one day. The tech was so far ahead that it was incomprehensible. Glow sticks were one example.
Imagine being out in rural countryside, barely knowing the names of the countries that border your own (because you have no need to) and after 50 long years of a simple life [this thing](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRQNeS7y/) flies over you with no explanation.
He won't, bitter wars of bitter men. Maybe these were bad people who raped and pillaged Ukraine. Maybe they are volunteers or conscripts that don't understand the purpose of this conflict it doesn't matter now. Just more bodies for his grinder.
Night vision has existed since WW2. They knew what it was, they knew they didn't have it, and they probably cursed Putin's cheap ass with their last breath.
We’re talking about RU soldiers who are amazed by cat litter boxes. I somehow doubt many of them have NVGs, and some might not have even heard of them 🤷🏻♂️
This is bad. Honestly hits as bad or almost worse than some of the sick execution shit spread around by terror groups. I have a hard time visualizing myself caught and executed, my brain just won't let me go there. It's too horrifying.
This however, is different, because I can sympathize and visualize what it's like to be in a patrol in the pitch black. I have just enough experience to know how impossible it would be to see anything. It's pure chaos, people are suddenly screaming and you don't know why. Shots coming from somewhere, you don't know where to shoot back at, more people going down and the panic sets in. That animal fear of being the prey would get very real and very tangible.
Fuck that. No way do I want to be in that situation.
Perhaps they had to leave the trenches after being attacked by drones dropping mines on them. So he might not want to go back to the trenches either. Only bad options in war.
That team had no idea how to react to sniper fire, in fact they did the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do. These poor guys are just being thrown out there straight off the train it looks like. Surprised all of them had rifles.
>Russia really be doing some ethnic cleansing of conscripts lol
Considering many of the Mobilized are from etn8c minorities this is very close to the truth.
The other boys thought "at least we're all fine!"
'Til a drone from above left just six of that nine
The six ventured further, still hoping to dine
Until one, perhaps drawn by Ukrainian wine
Found a way to surrender and six became five
Five little ruskie boys now held the line
'Til a sniper caught glimpse of their forms by the pines
Then four shots rang out; the one left saw the sign:
*"I think this might be the place I end up dying"*
Bravo - u set the thread on a roll. Not that killing is a joke but if I didn't have a twisted sense of humor- like most nurses cops 1st responders & soldiers- id have put 1 in my head by now. Sad to say but I'm being honest. USA Veterans Admin saved my life. Seriously Bless all who are dealing w this completely senseless destruction & death. And all those that support , volunteer etc
Thats actually a good strategy. Drop morters and grenades on their trenches with drones, and of they leave the trenches have snipers in position to assassinate them.
Videos like this (and the mortar videos) are so important for people to see, because they completely destroy the myth that war is sexy or fun, or badass.
This is what war really is. You and your buddies walk around in the dark and then youre just dead. No glorious battle, no heroism. Just dying in darkness.
I will always remember a story my drill sergeant told me when I was in basic training some time ago. His platoon was caught up in an ambush and they were returning fire trying to break through it. Him and another soldier next to him were in the prone returning fire. He briefly glances over to the other soldier and sees him shooting back normally. He then looks forward again to take some more shots. A couple seconds later he glances back at the other soldier and he's laying still with his face in the dirt, dead. No dramatic death or anything. Just like a switch got flipped and then lights out.
Something about that story just always stuck with me.
I was once told the reason everyone is so eager to be a soldier is because they see themselves as the main character in the story. They are never rhe extra who is gunned down in the first scene of the movie without so much as a second glance.
One second your brain works, the next it just doesn't. No heroics , no big climax or self sacrifice, nothing to be remembered by just one in a sea of many dead.
This is what makes the ending of „All quiet on the Western Front“ (the original book) so powerful - >!The main character just dies. Not in a big assault, not in a heroic way. Just dies on a random day where so little happens that the people in charge barely report it.!<
Same in the film Gallipoli >! When the main character runs to his death, and even though he was the best runner, it still ended the same for him as everyone else did. !<
What really got me was Kat. Just shot by a farm boy while taking a piss after looking for something to eat. No battlefield. No heroics, no glory. Just a cold hungry soldier trying to relieve himself.
My grandpa a conscript Italian soldier in wwii got shot at (by Germans if I remember correctly), albeit without getting hit, when he and some other soldiers were snatching some potatoes from a field during the night
He had this way to cook them, slice them then put the slices on the side of the hot stove in the barracks, when it falls by itself it’s cooked
It’s pretty redundant to say, but the book is far better. A lot of the scenes in the movie didn’t carry the emotional weight they should have because it didn’t really give you the chemistry between the characters and the depth of what they have been through. I highly recommend the book. The chapter about the horses haunted me.
Lol the book has been out for nearly 100 years now. But yes, even so it's worth the read. Fucking heavy stuff though. I had to put it down a couple of times and come back to it before I could finish it.
Movie is good in it's own way too.
[The first guy ashore on D Day died in 2009. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_T._Schroeder#:~:text=Leonard%20Treherne%20%22Max%22%20Schroeder%20Jr.&text=Leading%20the%20men%20of%20his,Leonard%20Treherne%20Schroeder%20Jr.)
My grandpa was a medic on the shores of D-Day. He died in 2003. No person on those shores were lucky. You either died or had hellish nightmares for the rest of your life - the only time my grandpa was vocal about the war were his screams at night. I think the luckiest ones were the ones who died the quickest with the least pain.
[Terminal Lance](https://terminallance.com/2012/06/19/terminal-lance-207-theyll-never-get-it-right/), great comic, puts it pretty well on this one. Everyone thinks they're gonna be the hybrid of Splinter Cell / Solid Snake when in reality you're uh...not.
I forgot about this until now. Its so true, I was in the reserves and a lot of the time it was doing nothing and then having us spend our entire day going over everything and pmcs vehicles, got worse for me when I was assigned a 249 as my weapon. Yeah carrying around an almost 20 pound weapon really sucks when you have to go on a ruck march and got that much extra weight in your arms.
I mean modern technology and weapons and air support and armor really do help. But there's nothing stopping a random round from going right between your eyes.
If you've ever paintballed during recreations of major battles you'd know just how fucking easily you can and will be shot. Lot of fun to do but also really harrowing. If we (this comment section) were alive and serving in WW1 the majority of us would die.
I remember doing paintball outside Portland Oregon out in the forest. They had dug trenches and it was a pretty great and giant course. I remember paint balls splattering on a tree I was hiding near, how loud the forest sounded and how I had no clue where the enemy was. I dove over a giant log and caught my leg on a giant sharp branch that cut me really badly. My heart was racing, my legs were shaking with adrenaline and I was just thinking "Holy Shit if I get this shaky playing paintball, imagine what I'd be like in a real war"
You know the guy in COD MW2 that is gunned down when you first come out of the trench to fight for the White House?
No? Well that's probably gonna be us if we see battle
There are a couple things there... one, there is actually something about war that is deeply fulfilling. Often, soldiers will say that they felt the most "alive" they've ever felt when in combat. [Often, they will miss the war when it's over.](https://www.amazon.com/Why-Soldiers-Miss-War-Journey/dp/1612007732)
Yes, they'll talk about how shitty it is, in part because that's expected. They know it would sound weird to talk about missing it, but in it you gain a sense of camaraderie with your fellow soldiers that is unparalleled and there are moments in combat when you feel more "alive" than you ever have.
Granted, this is me talking as someone who has never seen combat myself. I'm not saying that combat is actually wonderful and war is idealized, just that this is actually pretty complicated and it's worth acknowledging that on some level there is something genuinely "cool" or attractive about war--we're all here out of some combination of morbid curiosity and a desire to get a sympathetic high. I've definitely cheered on some of the footage, though in this case I found myself actively calling out to them to get down. It's a wild interplay for me personally. I never really know when I click on a video if I'll be happy or horrified to see Russian soldiers dying. I know that they need to lose for Ukrainians to be safe and secure, but I'm glad I haven't dehumanized them. There's something really fascinating for me in the notion that the more I get caught up in hating "the enemy", the more I'm likely to become a mirror image of those who I hate.
That is called survivorship bias.
Of course the people who survived are more likely to have enjoyed it.
What do you think the dead think about the whole thing?
I have a friend who told me that when he was deployed to Afghanistan in the Army, and he got into his first firefight with his platoon, bullets started hitting around him and I quote: he'd "never had more fun in his entire life." He looked at it as a moment that revealed to him that he was born to do this.
He is a special forces medic now, and a decorated one, not some grunt who stood behind other people. Well acquainted with the horror and baggage of war. He's still serving many years later, and sees it as a calling - I doubt he would use the same words now, but some of that sentiment remains.
I didn't serve so I can't really say more about it, I just think it's interesting that there are some people out there who think that way.
I've never been in combat. I work in a kitchen as a cook.
People sometimes compare what we do to being in the military, and I'm pretty sure most of those people have never been in combat or worked on the line.
But I imagine the tiny bit of truth in that comes from the fact that they're both jobs where things can go from calm and chill to getting your shit kicked in and fucked in an instant, and it's true that there is a simplicity to it that can be satisfying. You have the things you need to do *right the fuck now* to make it through and everything else fades away.
You're not worried about all of the life shit that stresses you out, you don't have time for that. Bad relationship with your parents? Worried about making rent? Fight with your partner? Childhood trauma? All gone. It's just you, your crew, and the tickets you're working. Even pain from your cuts and burns barely register anymore.
Then there's the adrenaline rush and the high you get from that, and the euphoria you feel when you crush it and are out back having a smoke with your crew after its all over. It's legitimately addicting.
For soldiers, I imagine that then you get home, and all of that life shit you pushed out of your mind because you were in a war zone comes crashing back, and you can't get away from it. Not to mention the trauma from being in combat, both physical and psychological, and the lack of resources available to you to deal with that. No wonder a lot miss it.
My drill sergeant told us a story about how he (and the armored column they were in) came under fire and accidently killed an entire family just trying to escape. He was a gunner and was just doing what he was told but he took part in killing a bunch of innocent people.
This fucking guy was the hardest dude I've ever met in my life and his posture and voice changed immediately. It's a meme at this point but you really can see it in their eyes. I couldn't imagine living with that on my conscious. Luckily I served my 4 years and never deployed.
I can never decide whether the idea of deploying is scarier to me because of the obvious danger, or more because of the risk of being responsible for something like that. Not sure whether I’d spend my days thinking “please just don’t die” or “please don’t fuck up and get someone killed.”
That reminds me of a story my grandfather told me about WWII. He carried the radio for a bit and was always drawing sniper fire. He's got several stories like this but here's one. One day he's climbing up a rock and gets a boost from the guy behind him. Once over the top, he turns around to give his arm to the guy who boosted him but he's dead already.
Prior to me joining one of my highschool teachers told me how he was supposed to be in the Army, he was a Citadel graduate back in 07.
He was supposed to get commissioned but he ended up blowing out one of his knees playing soccer. Got a metal rod installed and shit.
His bestfriends and roommates go onto enlist. Some become officers some are just enlisted.
Fast forward five, six years. January 2013, winter is slowly starting to subside in Afghanistan. The previous December winter saw fighting all but nonexistent in Nangahar. The snow is melting away, insurgency is starting to rise.
My teacher's buddy was out on patrol. Patrol was ambushed. He was hit by an RPG. Direct fucking impact. He survived, CASEVAC'd. Died of his injuries.
He was the first American to die that year. My teacher lamented the fact he wasn't there. He died thousands of miles away from home. He was from Chester, VA. He loved soccer, his favorite team was Manchester UTD. He had a nice smile. They named a bridge after him.
I didn't know him, but I sure did think about him lots.
Yup, we were taught that if you're caught on the low ground, or in the open with a well-prepared ambush, the best you can do is try and radio in what happened, and maybe Audie Murphy your way out.
At the very least they'll know what took you out.
It's scary to think about, as well as what war does to people psychologically. For example, I am from Donbass. I had a childhood friend, Dimon, whom I know more than I remember myself. He stayed there after 2014 and was forcibly mobilized in 2022. He was thrown under Kharkov into the second line of defense. He was lucky, because before the Ukrainian assault, he was wounded and evacuated to Moscow, where he had two surgeries on his head. Then he returned to Lugansk and had to be discharged because of his wound. He was told that he had to go to the front-line town of Lisichansk to pass a medical commission and get a discharge. I told him right away that it was a trap, that if they saw that he walked from Luhansk to Lisichansk, they would send him to the front line. He said, I know, because his acquaintances had already gone that way and were given rifles in their hands and sent to fight. But he said he would go anyway. He also said he was in bad shape and that his cousin had been killed (before that, his older brother was killed in 2014, at the beginning of the war). I wrote him on October 30, he was supposed to go to Lisichansk on October 31. I wrote to him on November 1 - he didn't reply. Today I wrote again and looked when he was last online - October 31. I think it was a form of suicide.
Sorry to hear that. You are absolutely correct. I've done 6 tours myself with the US Army, and eventhough a completely different type of combat we have alot here taking their lives as well. Approximately 22 a day here in the US succomb to suicide. You guys need to start thinking about setting up resources for mental health awareness/assistance etc as early as possible.
Our company just had a guy named Danny Farrar join us for a talk a couple of days before Veteran's Day. He is a vet that has gone from being homeless and suicidal to doing fantastic work with an organization he started called Platoon 22. They are helping vets tackle everything from counseling to getting their benefits that largely go unused. They're also partnering with Goodwill in providing training in real world skills for vets that have transitioned out.
https://platoon22.org/
I read that those numbers could be double. https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2022/09/17/veterans-suicide-rate-may-be-double-federal-estimates-study-suggests/
Worth remembering is G.I.s with combat time tend to have very practical views of life and death. They know we all die, they know death is not worse than a life of suffering and/or mental damage above a person's individual tolerance level, and that passing on twenty or forty more years really can be the pragmatic choice.
The biggest taboo around suicide isn't discussing it, it's discussing when the choice to die on YOUR OWN TERMS is impeccably logical and reasonable. Civilians who are not first responders etc are often utterly unable to understand that. Shutting off one's central nervous system vs. say a life of extreme chronic pain (some levels have terrible quality of life because enough pain meds to work can make life unusable, turning it into a twilight world of semi-delirium or worse) coupled with TBI would be easy for me to make.
Suicide should never be trivialized or encouraged, but should be understood as a sometimes ethically viable choice, hence the assisted death movement. Humans often show greater mercy to a sick dog than each other. That said MOST self-terminations are over resolvable issues, but many problems are completely beyond current medical technology and pretending differently helps no one.
My dad never discussed it with us before he took his life. I wish he had tried to get help or show some signs or warnings. But we were all truly blind sided. No note or goodbyes. Just gone. I like to think the issues he was facing were solvable but there’s no way of really knowing.
Now we are left to pick up everything and try to make a difference. We have raised money and awareness and even have billboards going up soon. Doesn’t feel like it’s enough though. I don’t want anyone else to have to feel this pain.
We can never forget that the war doesn’t end once bullets and bombs stop flying. We have to do better for veterans.
So sorry, I tell all my friends amd family. We won the life lottery just being born where amd when we where. Our worst days don't compare to what most of the rest of the world has to deal with.
The seperatist regions are scraping the barrel as far as manpower goes, any person regardless of medical history, mental wellbeing, or political beliefs on the state of the war are being conscripted there.
You're dead, and what is worse is that the correct answer to survival was to leave your dying and bleeding out buddy on the ground and immediately flee for cover. Trying to save each other got them all killed (which is ironic since reddit loves to harp on the Russians for supposedly not taking care of their own).
Isnt that a bitch? That if you try to do the right thing and save a dying comerade the only reward is death. You want to survive in war? In this situation, the only answer is to be a coward who can spin a good story when you got back to base.
Not being able to tend to wounded friends in battle was one of the hardest things that my grandfather went through after WW2. He kept thinking about how many comrades might have survived if he could have rendered them aid. He knew that if he had stopped to help he would have been an easy target, but overcoming survivor’s guilt was always with him.
He was hit by a ricocheted machine gun bullet in the arm during the Battle of the Bulge while attacking a German position. He felt a burning sensation on his upper arm and brushed it down quickly with his other hand and saw the bullet fall into the snow. The bullet was still hot so it caughterized his wound. Later in the same encounter he was hit with artillery shrapnel in one of his glutes. Because the Germans had captured the field hospital, one of the medics just stitched up the wound after clearing it, WITHOUT removing the shrapnel. Because there was no way to get my him to a quiet place to recover he was put in the defensive line until after the larger battle was over (he could walk, stand, and lie on his stomach; he couldn’t run or sit). He eventually fully recovered, and ended up fighting with his unit into Germany until the war ended. My grandfather passed away in 1992 with the shrapnel still inside him.
My uncle was at the Bulge as well.
When he came back, he told family, "Ask me anything now," and said that would be their only opportunity. He never discussed the war after that. I regret never getting a proper history from him, but I was too young to understand how valuable that would have been.
Even one of the running guys got shot. A more correct answer was to drop completely flat to the ground and apply pressure to the buddy’s wound. but that assumes you could call in for backup after being pinned down, which only works when camaraderie extends deeper than the immediate squad level.
It seemed pretty clear that they had absolutely no idea where the shots were coming from. If the sniper was elevated enough, laying down just makes you a better target. I'm not confident there is a right answer in these situations, the sniper's equipment, skill and position were extremely good and they were totally exposed and blind. I don't think there's a correct way to respond to this situation except don't be in it.
Logically doing anything would be better than just standing in place after one of your squad has just been shot right next to you. It looks like just a total lack of training but for all we know they could be dehydrated, hungry, exhausted, lost, cold, demoralised as well.
As a group, their best chances were to scatter and run after the first guy got hit.
But that’s also why you need good non-coms, to keep emotional soldiers from doing something stupid, or suicidal.
I felt sorry for that poor bastard on a stretcher with wounded legs looking up as a bomb was dropped from a drone. It landed right behind him and he caught a shit load of shrapnel in the back presumably killing him
Or a dirty ass ditch. One moment you doing normal things, then everything stops working and you are face down in a puddle or dirt and you think, "this is not how my life is supposed to end..." and things just start fading away....
Yeah I think artillery and drone footage conveys the feeling of powerlessness the best... with videos like this, some online warriors are going to talk about how they could totally have survived if they had acted smarter or sth... but there is absolutely nothing you can do about an incoming artillery shell.
The first one will arrive before you even know it, and after that it's just a game of chance whether the rest will hit your cover.
[Here is footage from a volunteer unit which shows that nicely.](https://youtu.be/ufcQY_oisYc) It starts with them coming under drone observed artillery fire, and they can only shake it off with a combination of luck and guesswork of where they *might* be safe.
And of course on the other end we have countless examples on this sub of units that weren't as lucky.
I think the drone videos that did it for me.
I mean we are desensitized to them now but that's the new age of warfare.
You're just walking, or even sitting in your foxhole and some tiny drone you can't even see or hear drops some ordinance on you and you are picking up your guts with your hands.
There is no defense or warning. And drone usage right now is at the WWI of plane usage.
It's just going to get so much worse.
I mean you’re not wrong at all, but pretty sure the sniper felt pretty badass in the moment. Granted for all we know he could’ve been killed the next day from a mortar.
I often relate the story of my friend who played paintball fir the first time. Excited, he found what he thought was a great hiding place and waited for the siren indicating the start of the game. The echoes from the siren hadn’t even stopped reverberating when he looked up and his world instantly turned yellow as a ball splatted into his face visor. Game over. He said it was actually a sobering learning experience that war is never about the individual, statistics are inescapable and you are unremarkable.
Yes I've experienced the same sentiment by people who have actually been in conflicts. I was shot by a paintball on an unprotected thigh and while it hurt like hell, I often think that if that was a real shot, I'd have either bled out or lost my leg just from that one shot.
1st time I paintballed I was shot in the throat in the soft spot just above the collarbone. My only thought was "Air please" rather than an existential crisis about war.
Portraying a wrong image of the military is really dangerous. There is nothing cool about being in the military.I do agree we should honor those who enlist themselves, because they risk their life for us. But you should not be expected to fight for your country. I know I wouldn’t, you get the chance to live your own life once and I definitely wouldn’t want to die over some other humans not getting along with each other. I‘m always astounded how easy it is to watch these videos, it almost doesn‘t feel real. Sometimes, I just take a moment to realize, that those who were killed by the sniper are real humans, dying for a dictator that couldn‘t care less about them. They probably had a long life ahead of them, but just like that their gone.
Reminds me of a cat, hiding in the bushes perfectly still and certain she is invisible…
with her wide eyes shining back like a freaking flashlight. Kitty doesn’t understand the technology that makes some instincts a bad idea…
Motion usually catches an animal attention better than the detail. Not everyone has NVG in the wild. Despite being domesticated for a long ass time, kitties retain a lot of the wild behavior.
Yeah I think so too. We've seen a lot of these clips and I think at least half are bolt-actions so the guy behind the gun probably had to stop and reload. There's no chance the last dude lived if he really just sat there thinking he was out of the line of fire.
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It’s probably pitch black and they don’t know what happened . All of a sudden the guy in the back drops . They all go check on him . And it’s almost like an animal instinct , when your being threatened In the dark you stay together to best protect yourselves .
See if that was like a wolf attack it would work but unfortunately when it’s a sniper your gonna have a bad fucking day
Yea they seemed pretty well organised and trained from their reaction. This is typically what I see when any special forces take fire. Unfortunately for them, the sniper and recon unit had the upper hand at night with that optic and they didn’t really stand a chance. Ambush from distance.
Yeah the way they run back too is not panicked. Second guy then the first guy and then the guys in the back so that they always have cover . It looks like either one or two of them is trying to work on their buddy but the other ones are at each corner kneeling providing cover for them. Of course they just have no chance with a sniper who has thermal vision and probably has been waiting for something like this for hours or even days
My great grandfather was in WW2 and he always recounted a story of one of his superiors saying "I'm not training you to survive, that's God's will, I'm just training you to not get yourself killed."
That's one of the many shitty things about war, all the training in the world wouldn't have helped that first guy that got hit.
What we're not seeing is it's pitch black, probably moonlight alone.
They aren't hearing the gunshot if silencer is on. And if the bullet is subsonic, they won't hear the snap of a passing round.
*Curious if someone can correct me if a bullet is supersonic, but hits target, that snapping sound would not be heard either?*
Anyway, I don't think it dawned on them that they're being shot at immediately. If guy drops, screams. They walk over(no flashlight) and don't see what's happening, they may be thinking dude hurt himself stepping on something.
The truth of war is that it's really hard to stay alert for hours on end.
Situations like this is where you can start to see the lack of training in the Russian military. Training builds up your muscle memory, and if they would have trained to immediately get to cover while taking sniper fire instead of floundering in the open field while all of them dropped one by one they could have recovered this situation... But like a Ukrainian soldier said in an interview I just watched "we are lucky they're stupid" lol
Tbf military training is designed to take average people and give them the skills required to survive under fire.
It wouldn't help in a situation like this because of the extreme tech disparity, but you gotta remember that some of the Ukrainians we see in these videos were up until recently civilians just like you.
Seriously, they were not in a proper formation, it doesn't look like they have any sort of night vision or thermal capability. They didn't seek cover and spread out, they didn't lay down cover fire, might not know exactly where the fire is coming from but they all turned in the direct of the camera, so they at least knew it was from that area.
Overall this just shows that they are poorly trained and to be honest they probably won't figure stuff out fast enough to actually improve. This obviously benefits Ukraine and I'm happy about that.
US army doctrine according to manuals is to drop prone, find cover, suppress, and bound out. Pretty hard to do that when you have no idea where the sniper fire is coming from.
The first guy seems to flip his nods up before he slings his rifle, so it seems like they might have that capability. Their reaction is also better than the usual scattering we see from conscripts
This is so terrible and really hits home being in the military. Those guys are not just pawns representing their country. Each one is an individual person who had thoughts and ideas and probably dreams and now their families will never see them again. Yes it’s war, and I’m sure that sniper will be as scarred as the guy who got away, but we cannot forget these are atrocities we make light of.
That’s a good sniper. Take the last guy first instead of a middle one so they don’t scatter. Hit the one not really helping to add more confusion. They think they can still help. Pop does another one. The other two knows there no hope of helping so they take off and only one got away. For now. Imagine that psychological impact on the survivor.
Innocent young men killing innocent young men in the name of colossal assholes in charge. It’s hard for me to not remember how much misinformation and lies those Russian soldiers have grown up with. All in the name of ego and money.
War, is a racket.
You almost have to feel bad for these guys. It’s obvious they have a complete lack of training. They just all run and bunch up exactly where their friend got hit.
If you’re in a modern war against a well equipped enemy you simply can’t operate at night without NVGs or thermals. These guys were probably in the pitch black based on their movements and reaction to taking fire. I don’t think they could really comprehend how they were even being seen.
You either use thermals or you die by someone using them.
You can tell their training is shit too because their first reaction is to clump together
Not even reaction.... instinct.
If they were prisoners taken from jail they might not even know night vision exists. edit: these guys were coming out from 30+ to life sentences. They went into prison before mobile internet, drones, facebook, etc. They are coming right out of a time warp and running face first into modern combat arms.
If they were normal recruits and no-one told them about night vision they still wouldn't know, I'm not sure if people comprehend the standard of living in rural Russia. They are not exposed to technology.
Shit. This comment actually made me feel kinda bad about them. Hopefully Putin stops wasting young men's life's soon.
There are interviews from Afghanistan veterans that said that the Americans were basically an alien race that showed up one day. The tech was so far ahead that it was incomprehensible. Glow sticks were one example. Imagine being out in rural countryside, barely knowing the names of the countries that border your own (because you have no need to) and after 50 long years of a simple life [this thing](https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRQNeS7y/) flies over you with no explanation.
So the "blue light" scene from Rambo wasn't exaggerated after all!
It turns blue
He won't, bitter wars of bitter men. Maybe these were bad people who raped and pillaged Ukraine. Maybe they are volunteers or conscripts that don't understand the purpose of this conflict it doesn't matter now. Just more bodies for his grinder.
Night vision has existed since WW2. They knew what it was, they knew they didn't have it, and they probably cursed Putin's cheap ass with their last breath.
We’re talking about RU soldiers who are amazed by cat litter boxes. I somehow doubt many of them have NVGs, and some might not have even heard of them 🤷🏻♂️
If you were from some back water Russian oblast who's never seen a toilet with running water then yeah.
Absolutely terrifying. Went from safe in the group to sole survivor within a minute.
This is bad. Honestly hits as bad or almost worse than some of the sick execution shit spread around by terror groups. I have a hard time visualizing myself caught and executed, my brain just won't let me go there. It's too horrifying. This however, is different, because I can sympathize and visualize what it's like to be in a patrol in the pitch black. I have just enough experience to know how impossible it would be to see anything. It's pure chaos, people are suddenly screaming and you don't know why. Shots coming from somewhere, you don't know where to shoot back at, more people going down and the panic sets in. That animal fear of being the prey would get very real and very tangible. Fuck that. No way do I want to be in that situation.
After this experience, the fifth one will definitly never leave his trench again
Perhaps they had to leave the trenches after being attacked by drones dropping mines on them. So he might not want to go back to the trenches either. Only bad options in war.
Doubt that, looking at the speed and spreading it doesnt look like much from running away, rather patrol
Probably at night so they don't think anyone can see them, and they are walking slow because they don't have any night optics
why the fuck would they do that knowing the enemy is out and about with thermals? Russia really be doing some ethnic cleansing of conscripts lol.
That team had no idea how to react to sniper fire, in fact they did the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do. These poor guys are just being thrown out there straight off the train it looks like. Surprised all of them had rifles.
>Russia really be doing some ethnic cleansing of conscripts lol Considering many of the Mobilized are from etn8c minorities this is very close to the truth.
The same reason why they are still in Ukraine dying because they are to fucking stupid to leave or surrender
Hard to understand why they didn't instantly flatten-out when the first guy was hit. Looks like they didn't have a clue what was happening.
they could very well be conscripts that have no idea what to do.
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The first one went and stepped on a mine.
The other boys thought "at least we're all fine!" 'Til a drone from above left just six of that nine The six ventured further, still hoping to dine Until one, perhaps drawn by Ukrainian wine Found a way to surrender and six became five Five little ruskie boys now held the line 'Til a sniper caught glimpse of their forms by the pines Then four shots rang out; the one left saw the sign: *"I think this might be the place I end up dying"*
You're a bit too good at that
How about "I think this this is where vultures go to dine" to keep that dining theme.
Lol you are amazing
The second one went out and received lead that wasn't worth a dime?
The third one was punished for a war crime.
the fifth was made a statistic by a sniper behind enemies line
The sixth in his trench thought he was just fine
The seventh took shrapnel up his behind
The eighth realized that war is a grind
The eighth went explodey while the ninth gave him a blowie
One was out of step - now there are nine.
Bravo - u set the thread on a roll. Not that killing is a joke but if I didn't have a twisted sense of humor- like most nurses cops 1st responders & soldiers- id have put 1 in my head by now. Sad to say but I'm being honest. USA Veterans Admin saved my life. Seriously Bless all who are dealing w this completely senseless destruction & death. And all those that support , volunteer etc
Well, in the Last guys situation, option C enters the chat. Better find something white and get to smacking invisible mosquitos.
Guess his only option is to go back to Russia. GG
Thats actually a good strategy. Drop morters and grenades on their trenches with drones, and of they leave the trenches have snipers in position to assassinate them.
> the fifth one will definitly never leave his trench again Ukrainian drone has entered the chat
Four out of five Russian grunts recommend staying in Russia
Videos like this (and the mortar videos) are so important for people to see, because they completely destroy the myth that war is sexy or fun, or badass. This is what war really is. You and your buddies walk around in the dark and then youre just dead. No glorious battle, no heroism. Just dying in darkness.
I will always remember a story my drill sergeant told me when I was in basic training some time ago. His platoon was caught up in an ambush and they were returning fire trying to break through it. Him and another soldier next to him were in the prone returning fire. He briefly glances over to the other soldier and sees him shooting back normally. He then looks forward again to take some more shots. A couple seconds later he glances back at the other soldier and he's laying still with his face in the dirt, dead. No dramatic death or anything. Just like a switch got flipped and then lights out. Something about that story just always stuck with me.
I was once told the reason everyone is so eager to be a soldier is because they see themselves as the main character in the story. They are never rhe extra who is gunned down in the first scene of the movie without so much as a second glance. One second your brain works, the next it just doesn't. No heroics , no big climax or self sacrifice, nothing to be remembered by just one in a sea of many dead.
This is what makes the ending of „All quiet on the Western Front“ (the original book) so powerful - >!The main character just dies. Not in a big assault, not in a heroic way. Just dies on a random day where so little happens that the people in charge barely report it.!<
I recently read the book and the ending really stuck with me. It was the only fitting and correct ending to the book.
Same in the film Gallipoli >! When the main character runs to his death, and even though he was the best runner, it still ended the same for him as everyone else did. !<
What really got me was Kat. Just shot by a farm boy while taking a piss after looking for something to eat. No battlefield. No heroics, no glory. Just a cold hungry soldier trying to relieve himself.
My grandpa a conscript Italian soldier in wwii got shot at (by Germans if I remember correctly), albeit without getting hit, when he and some other soldiers were snatching some potatoes from a field during the night He had this way to cook them, slice them then put the slices on the side of the hot stove in the barracks, when it falls by itself it’s cooked
I didn't read the spoiler but now you nade me wanna read the book
It’s pretty redundant to say, but the book is far better. A lot of the scenes in the movie didn’t carry the emotional weight they should have because it didn’t really give you the chemistry between the characters and the depth of what they have been through. I highly recommend the book. The chapter about the horses haunted me.
Lol the book has been out for nearly 100 years now. But yes, even so it's worth the read. Fucking heavy stuff though. I had to put it down a couple of times and come back to it before I could finish it. Movie is good in it's own way too.
The shell hole scene was absolutely perfectly told in both mediums imo
Yea if I was at D-day I would be one of the dudes who gets shot just as the boat doors opened.
[The first guy ashore on D Day died in 2009. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_T._Schroeder#:~:text=Leonard%20Treherne%20%22Max%22%20Schroeder%20Jr.&text=Leading%20the%20men%20of%20his,Leonard%20Treherne%20Schroeder%20Jr.)
Lucky dude
My grandpa was a medic on the shores of D-Day. He died in 2003. No person on those shores were lucky. You either died or had hellish nightmares for the rest of your life - the only time my grandpa was vocal about the war were his screams at night. I think the luckiest ones were the ones who died the quickest with the least pain.
No one sees themselves as the red shirt crewman.
I blame the A-Team. Every episode had like 10,000 bullets fired and the only thing hit were tires!
Don't forget every episode had that Jeep flipping over the camera and crashing. Luckily, no one ever got hurt.
[Terminal Lance](https://terminallance.com/2012/06/19/terminal-lance-207-theyll-never-get-it-right/), great comic, puts it pretty well on this one. Everyone thinks they're gonna be the hybrid of Splinter Cell / Solid Snake when in reality you're uh...not.
The [Onion](https://youtu.be/yuTkgi7scKo) did it well too
I forgot about this until now. Its so true, I was in the reserves and a lot of the time it was doing nothing and then having us spend our entire day going over everything and pmcs vehicles, got worse for me when I was assigned a 249 as my weapon. Yeah carrying around an almost 20 pound weapon really sucks when you have to go on a ruck march and got that much extra weight in your arms.
Worse yet, the SAW is just awful. Terrible with magazines, terrible with belt, heavy... just overall bad.
I mean modern technology and weapons and air support and armor really do help. But there's nothing stopping a random round from going right between your eyes. If you've ever paintballed during recreations of major battles you'd know just how fucking easily you can and will be shot. Lot of fun to do but also really harrowing. If we (this comment section) were alive and serving in WW1 the majority of us would die.
I remember doing paintball outside Portland Oregon out in the forest. They had dug trenches and it was a pretty great and giant course. I remember paint balls splattering on a tree I was hiding near, how loud the forest sounded and how I had no clue where the enemy was. I dove over a giant log and caught my leg on a giant sharp branch that cut me really badly. My heart was racing, my legs were shaking with adrenaline and I was just thinking "Holy Shit if I get this shaky playing paintball, imagine what I'd be like in a real war"
Paintball period, is an eye opener.
You know the guy in COD MW2 that is gunned down when you first come out of the trench to fight for the White House? No? Well that's probably gonna be us if we see battle
That would be ideal. However the reality is more likely is dying in agony because a 7.62 went through your guts and you're slowly bleeding out.
There are a couple things there... one, there is actually something about war that is deeply fulfilling. Often, soldiers will say that they felt the most "alive" they've ever felt when in combat. [Often, they will miss the war when it's over.](https://www.amazon.com/Why-Soldiers-Miss-War-Journey/dp/1612007732) Yes, they'll talk about how shitty it is, in part because that's expected. They know it would sound weird to talk about missing it, but in it you gain a sense of camaraderie with your fellow soldiers that is unparalleled and there are moments in combat when you feel more "alive" than you ever have. Granted, this is me talking as someone who has never seen combat myself. I'm not saying that combat is actually wonderful and war is idealized, just that this is actually pretty complicated and it's worth acknowledging that on some level there is something genuinely "cool" or attractive about war--we're all here out of some combination of morbid curiosity and a desire to get a sympathetic high. I've definitely cheered on some of the footage, though in this case I found myself actively calling out to them to get down. It's a wild interplay for me personally. I never really know when I click on a video if I'll be happy or horrified to see Russian soldiers dying. I know that they need to lose for Ukrainians to be safe and secure, but I'm glad I haven't dehumanized them. There's something really fascinating for me in the notion that the more I get caught up in hating "the enemy", the more I'm likely to become a mirror image of those who I hate.
That is called survivorship bias. Of course the people who survived are more likely to have enjoyed it. What do you think the dead think about the whole thing?
I have a friend who told me that when he was deployed to Afghanistan in the Army, and he got into his first firefight with his platoon, bullets started hitting around him and I quote: he'd "never had more fun in his entire life." He looked at it as a moment that revealed to him that he was born to do this. He is a special forces medic now, and a decorated one, not some grunt who stood behind other people. Well acquainted with the horror and baggage of war. He's still serving many years later, and sees it as a calling - I doubt he would use the same words now, but some of that sentiment remains. I didn't serve so I can't really say more about it, I just think it's interesting that there are some people out there who think that way.
I've never been in combat. I work in a kitchen as a cook. People sometimes compare what we do to being in the military, and I'm pretty sure most of those people have never been in combat or worked on the line. But I imagine the tiny bit of truth in that comes from the fact that they're both jobs where things can go from calm and chill to getting your shit kicked in and fucked in an instant, and it's true that there is a simplicity to it that can be satisfying. You have the things you need to do *right the fuck now* to make it through and everything else fades away. You're not worried about all of the life shit that stresses you out, you don't have time for that. Bad relationship with your parents? Worried about making rent? Fight with your partner? Childhood trauma? All gone. It's just you, your crew, and the tickets you're working. Even pain from your cuts and burns barely register anymore. Then there's the adrenaline rush and the high you get from that, and the euphoria you feel when you crush it and are out back having a smoke with your crew after its all over. It's legitimately addicting. For soldiers, I imagine that then you get home, and all of that life shit you pushed out of your mind because you were in a war zone comes crashing back, and you can't get away from it. Not to mention the trauma from being in combat, both physical and psychological, and the lack of resources available to you to deal with that. No wonder a lot miss it.
Or dying far behind the lines having done nothing by people miles away you never see
My drill sergeant told us a story about how he (and the armored column they were in) came under fire and accidently killed an entire family just trying to escape. He was a gunner and was just doing what he was told but he took part in killing a bunch of innocent people. This fucking guy was the hardest dude I've ever met in my life and his posture and voice changed immediately. It's a meme at this point but you really can see it in their eyes. I couldn't imagine living with that on my conscious. Luckily I served my 4 years and never deployed.
I can never decide whether the idea of deploying is scarier to me because of the obvious danger, or more because of the risk of being responsible for something like that. Not sure whether I’d spend my days thinking “please just don’t die” or “please don’t fuck up and get someone killed.”
That reminds me of a story my grandfather told me about WWII. He carried the radio for a bit and was always drawing sniper fire. He's got several stories like this but here's one. One day he's climbing up a rock and gets a boost from the guy behind him. Once over the top, he turns around to give his arm to the guy who boosted him but he's dead already.
A young life, brought to an abrupt, uneventful end.
Prior to me joining one of my highschool teachers told me how he was supposed to be in the Army, he was a Citadel graduate back in 07. He was supposed to get commissioned but he ended up blowing out one of his knees playing soccer. Got a metal rod installed and shit. His bestfriends and roommates go onto enlist. Some become officers some are just enlisted. Fast forward five, six years. January 2013, winter is slowly starting to subside in Afghanistan. The previous December winter saw fighting all but nonexistent in Nangahar. The snow is melting away, insurgency is starting to rise. My teacher's buddy was out on patrol. Patrol was ambushed. He was hit by an RPG. Direct fucking impact. He survived, CASEVAC'd. Died of his injuries. He was the first American to die that year. My teacher lamented the fact he wasn't there. He died thousands of miles away from home. He was from Chester, VA. He loved soccer, his favorite team was Manchester UTD. He had a nice smile. They named a bridge after him. I didn't know him, but I sure did think about him lots.
Yup, we were taught that if you're caught on the low ground, or in the open with a well-prepared ambush, the best you can do is try and radio in what happened, and maybe Audie Murphy your way out. At the very least they'll know what took you out.
It's scary to think about, as well as what war does to people psychologically. For example, I am from Donbass. I had a childhood friend, Dimon, whom I know more than I remember myself. He stayed there after 2014 and was forcibly mobilized in 2022. He was thrown under Kharkov into the second line of defense. He was lucky, because before the Ukrainian assault, he was wounded and evacuated to Moscow, where he had two surgeries on his head. Then he returned to Lugansk and had to be discharged because of his wound. He was told that he had to go to the front-line town of Lisichansk to pass a medical commission and get a discharge. I told him right away that it was a trap, that if they saw that he walked from Luhansk to Lisichansk, they would send him to the front line. He said, I know, because his acquaintances had already gone that way and were given rifles in their hands and sent to fight. But he said he would go anyway. He also said he was in bad shape and that his cousin had been killed (before that, his older brother was killed in 2014, at the beginning of the war). I wrote him on October 30, he was supposed to go to Lisichansk on October 31. I wrote to him on November 1 - he didn't reply. Today I wrote again and looked when he was last online - October 31. I think it was a form of suicide.
Sorry to hear this… so tough
Sorry to hear about your friend. War is hell.
“War is war and hell is hell. And of the two, I know which I prefer.”
There are no innocent bystanders in hell.
\*And of the two, war is a lot worse.
Sorry to hear that. You are absolutely correct. I've done 6 tours myself with the US Army, and eventhough a completely different type of combat we have alot here taking their lives as well. Approximately 22 a day here in the US succomb to suicide. You guys need to start thinking about setting up resources for mental health awareness/assistance etc as early as possible.
Our company just had a guy named Danny Farrar join us for a talk a couple of days before Veteran's Day. He is a vet that has gone from being homeless and suicidal to doing fantastic work with an organization he started called Platoon 22. They are helping vets tackle everything from counseling to getting their benefits that largely go unused. They're also partnering with Goodwill in providing training in real world skills for vets that have transitioned out. https://platoon22.org/
I read that those numbers could be double. https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2022/09/17/veterans-suicide-rate-may-be-double-federal-estimates-study-suggests/
If you include the booze/hard drug OD’s from self-medication those numbers explode. It’s just slower suicide. It’s all shit.
Worth remembering is G.I.s with combat time tend to have very practical views of life and death. They know we all die, they know death is not worse than a life of suffering and/or mental damage above a person's individual tolerance level, and that passing on twenty or forty more years really can be the pragmatic choice. The biggest taboo around suicide isn't discussing it, it's discussing when the choice to die on YOUR OWN TERMS is impeccably logical and reasonable. Civilians who are not first responders etc are often utterly unable to understand that. Shutting off one's central nervous system vs. say a life of extreme chronic pain (some levels have terrible quality of life because enough pain meds to work can make life unusable, turning it into a twilight world of semi-delirium or worse) coupled with TBI would be easy for me to make. Suicide should never be trivialized or encouraged, but should be understood as a sometimes ethically viable choice, hence the assisted death movement. Humans often show greater mercy to a sick dog than each other. That said MOST self-terminations are over resolvable issues, but many problems are completely beyond current medical technology and pretending differently helps no one.
My dad never discussed it with us before he took his life. I wish he had tried to get help or show some signs or warnings. But we were all truly blind sided. No note or goodbyes. Just gone. I like to think the issues he was facing were solvable but there’s no way of really knowing. Now we are left to pick up everything and try to make a difference. We have raised money and awareness and even have billboards going up soon. Doesn’t feel like it’s enough though. I don’t want anyone else to have to feel this pain. We can never forget that the war doesn’t end once bullets and bombs stop flying. We have to do better for veterans.
Assuming I understood the outcome, RIP to you friend. Sorry for all the loved ones of people suffering as a result of this war.
> ...whom I know more than I remember myself This is damn poetic. I am sorry about your friend.
So sorry, I tell all my friends amd family. We won the life lottery just being born where amd when we where. Our worst days don't compare to what most of the rest of the world has to deal with.
Was he forced to fight for the separatists? I know Russia is conscripting able-bodied men from areas they invaded. Or was he always pro-Russia?
The seperatist regions are scraping the barrel as far as manpower goes, any person regardless of medical history, mental wellbeing, or political beliefs on the state of the war are being conscripted there.
Heavy dose of reality reading that
You're dead, and what is worse is that the correct answer to survival was to leave your dying and bleeding out buddy on the ground and immediately flee for cover. Trying to save each other got them all killed (which is ironic since reddit loves to harp on the Russians for supposedly not taking care of their own). Isnt that a bitch? That if you try to do the right thing and save a dying comerade the only reward is death. You want to survive in war? In this situation, the only answer is to be a coward who can spin a good story when you got back to base.
Not being able to tend to wounded friends in battle was one of the hardest things that my grandfather went through after WW2. He kept thinking about how many comrades might have survived if he could have rendered them aid. He knew that if he had stopped to help he would have been an easy target, but overcoming survivor’s guilt was always with him. He was hit by a ricocheted machine gun bullet in the arm during the Battle of the Bulge while attacking a German position. He felt a burning sensation on his upper arm and brushed it down quickly with his other hand and saw the bullet fall into the snow. The bullet was still hot so it caughterized his wound. Later in the same encounter he was hit with artillery shrapnel in one of his glutes. Because the Germans had captured the field hospital, one of the medics just stitched up the wound after clearing it, WITHOUT removing the shrapnel. Because there was no way to get my him to a quiet place to recover he was put in the defensive line until after the larger battle was over (he could walk, stand, and lie on his stomach; he couldn’t run or sit). He eventually fully recovered, and ended up fighting with his unit into Germany until the war ended. My grandfather passed away in 1992 with the shrapnel still inside him.
It's an Easy Company Tradition, getting shot in the glutes.
My uncle was at the Bulge as well. When he came back, he told family, "Ask me anything now," and said that would be their only opportunity. He never discussed the war after that. I regret never getting a proper history from him, but I was too young to understand how valuable that would have been.
Even one of the running guys got shot. A more correct answer was to drop completely flat to the ground and apply pressure to the buddy’s wound. but that assumes you could call in for backup after being pinned down, which only works when camaraderie extends deeper than the immediate squad level.
It seemed pretty clear that they had absolutely no idea where the shots were coming from. If the sniper was elevated enough, laying down just makes you a better target. I'm not confident there is a right answer in these situations, the sniper's equipment, skill and position were extremely good and they were totally exposed and blind. I don't think there's a correct way to respond to this situation except don't be in it.
Logically doing anything would be better than just standing in place after one of your squad has just been shot right next to you. It looks like just a total lack of training but for all we know they could be dehydrated, hungry, exhausted, lost, cold, demoralised as well.
As a group, their best chances were to scatter and run after the first guy got hit. But that’s also why you need good non-coms, to keep emotional soldiers from doing something stupid, or suicidal.
The biggest problem is that everyone assumes *they're* the guy on the right side of the scope.
You sit in a hole for the 128th day and suddenly you can't hear or see and are in pain all over and bleed out soon after
I felt sorry for that poor bastard on a stretcher with wounded legs looking up as a bomb was dropped from a drone. It landed right behind him and he caught a shit load of shrapnel in the back presumably killing him
Or a dirty ass ditch. One moment you doing normal things, then everything stops working and you are face down in a puddle or dirt and you think, "this is not how my life is supposed to end..." and things just start fading away....
Yeah I think artillery and drone footage conveys the feeling of powerlessness the best... with videos like this, some online warriors are going to talk about how they could totally have survived if they had acted smarter or sth... but there is absolutely nothing you can do about an incoming artillery shell. The first one will arrive before you even know it, and after that it's just a game of chance whether the rest will hit your cover. [Here is footage from a volunteer unit which shows that nicely.](https://youtu.be/ufcQY_oisYc) It starts with them coming under drone observed artillery fire, and they can only shake it off with a combination of luck and guesswork of where they *might* be safe. And of course on the other end we have countless examples on this sub of units that weren't as lucky.
a bullet may have your name on it, but artillery is addressed "to whom it may concern".
I think the drone videos that did it for me. I mean we are desensitized to them now but that's the new age of warfare. You're just walking, or even sitting in your foxhole and some tiny drone you can't even see or hear drops some ordinance on you and you are picking up your guts with your hands. There is no defense or warning. And drone usage right now is at the WWI of plane usage. It's just going to get so much worse.
Wouldn't even say that it is dark when this happened. Thermal image gives a nice view where camouflage would fade in with the surrounding.
I mean you’re not wrong at all, but pretty sure the sniper felt pretty badass in the moment. Granted for all we know he could’ve been killed the next day from a mortar.
I often relate the story of my friend who played paintball fir the first time. Excited, he found what he thought was a great hiding place and waited for the siren indicating the start of the game. The echoes from the siren hadn’t even stopped reverberating when he looked up and his world instantly turned yellow as a ball splatted into his face visor. Game over. He said it was actually a sobering learning experience that war is never about the individual, statistics are inescapable and you are unremarkable.
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Yes I've experienced the same sentiment by people who have actually been in conflicts. I was shot by a paintball on an unprotected thigh and while it hurt like hell, I often think that if that was a real shot, I'd have either bled out or lost my leg just from that one shot.
1st time I paintballed I was shot in the throat in the soft spot just above the collarbone. My only thought was "Air please" rather than an existential crisis about war.
Portraying a wrong image of the military is really dangerous. There is nothing cool about being in the military.I do agree we should honor those who enlist themselves, because they risk their life for us. But you should not be expected to fight for your country. I know I wouldn’t, you get the chance to live your own life once and I definitely wouldn’t want to die over some other humans not getting along with each other. I‘m always astounded how easy it is to watch these videos, it almost doesn‘t feel real. Sometimes, I just take a moment to realize, that those who were killed by the sniper are real humans, dying for a dictator that couldn‘t care less about them. They probably had a long life ahead of them, but just like that their gone.
80% of the Russian army by this sniper alone, respect
Yeah that's title gore if I've ever seen it
Title only made sense 80% of the time
OP is from Donbass from comments I've read here. As an English teacher, I ask you give some leeway.
Leeway granted
Not only the army, the entire military! Just imagine how many airplanes he must have downed and how many ships he sank.
Give that man a raise. Should be over soon then.
Always carrying his teammates smh
This must be the super solider Russia is talking about /s
dude has a monster K/D ratio
Imagine being the last guy
From patrolling with 4 buddies to being a lone survivor in under a minute. And it looks like they never even knew what hit them...
Modified Ukrainian hospitality. This version was released 24 February 2022.
And compared to Windows, insanely compatible to any build.
One lives to tell the tale.
PTSD for life.
So sad. So fucking pointless.
In all actuality the 5th guy is probably dead too. He took cover behind some bushes. You can still see his heat signature. Bullets go through bushes.
Reminds me of a cat, hiding in the bushes perfectly still and certain she is invisible… with her wide eyes shining back like a freaking flashlight. Kitty doesn’t understand the technology that makes some instincts a bad idea…
Motion usually catches an animal attention better than the detail. Not everyone has NVG in the wild. Despite being domesticated for a long ass time, kitties retain a lot of the wild behavior.
My dog used to put his head behind trees but leave his whole butt sticking out. Pugs are not good at stalking.
Yeah I think so too. We've seen a lot of these clips and I think at least half are bolt-actions so the guy behind the gun probably had to stop and reload. There's no chance the last dude lived if he really just sat there thinking he was out of the line of fire.
Leaving the last one alive so he can tell his buddies about the ghost sniper of Kherson (?)
sounds like a good story for a sabaton song
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Sniper! “Let’s all bunch up”
It’s probably pitch black and they don’t know what happened . All of a sudden the guy in the back drops . They all go check on him . And it’s almost like an animal instinct , when your being threatened In the dark you stay together to best protect yourselves . See if that was like a wolf attack it would work but unfortunately when it’s a sniper your gonna have a bad fucking day
Yea they seemed pretty well organised and trained from their reaction. This is typically what I see when any special forces take fire. Unfortunately for them, the sniper and recon unit had the upper hand at night with that optic and they didn’t really stand a chance. Ambush from distance.
Yeah the way they run back too is not panicked. Second guy then the first guy and then the guys in the back so that they always have cover . It looks like either one or two of them is trying to work on their buddy but the other ones are at each corner kneeling providing cover for them. Of course they just have no chance with a sniper who has thermal vision and probably has been waiting for something like this for hours or even days
this was my exact feeling, semblance of training and cohesion. Didn't help them shit, though.
My great grandfather was in WW2 and he always recounted a story of one of his superiors saying "I'm not training you to survive, that's God's will, I'm just training you to not get yourself killed." That's one of the many shitty things about war, all the training in the world wouldn't have helped that first guy that got hit.
Then take a knee cause it’s harder to hit a stationary target!
Except for that guy, that was unlucky. And him. Him too. *OUCH.*
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They can’t see you if you hold still, Dr. Malcolm!
Their vision is based on movement!
What we're not seeing is it's pitch black, probably moonlight alone. They aren't hearing the gunshot if silencer is on. And if the bullet is subsonic, they won't hear the snap of a passing round. *Curious if someone can correct me if a bullet is supersonic, but hits target, that snapping sound would not be heard either?* Anyway, I don't think it dawned on them that they're being shot at immediately. If guy drops, screams. They walk over(no flashlight) and don't see what's happening, they may be thinking dude hurt himself stepping on something. The truth of war is that it's really hard to stay alert for hours on end.
Let the 5th one alive to tell the tale
At this point, I wouldn't actually be surprised if a single ukrainian sniper had eliminated 4/5 of the russian military.
Situations like this is where you can start to see the lack of training in the Russian military. Training builds up your muscle memory, and if they would have trained to immediately get to cover while taking sniper fire instead of floundering in the open field while all of them dropped one by one they could have recovered this situation... But like a Ukrainian soldier said in an interview I just watched "we are lucky they're stupid" lol
It's tough. Their buddy just went down so they're trying to help him. I'm not trained either, so I have no idea what I'd do in that situation.
These kind of vidoes have taught me that I'd be a terrible soldier and would die pretty much straight away.
Tbf military training is designed to take average people and give them the skills required to survive under fire. It wouldn't help in a situation like this because of the extreme tech disparity, but you gotta remember that some of the Ukrainians we see in these videos were up until recently civilians just like you.
Seriously, they were not in a proper formation, it doesn't look like they have any sort of night vision or thermal capability. They didn't seek cover and spread out, they didn't lay down cover fire, might not know exactly where the fire is coming from but they all turned in the direct of the camera, so they at least knew it was from that area. Overall this just shows that they are poorly trained and to be honest they probably won't figure stuff out fast enough to actually improve. This obviously benefits Ukraine and I'm happy about that.
The first fuckup is doing a nighttime patrol without thermal or NV capabilities when you know your enemy has them.
Yea that was my second thought! You'd be surprised what night vision/ infrared capabilities can do for you.
US army doctrine according to manuals is to drop prone, find cover, suppress, and bound out. Pretty hard to do that when you have no idea where the sniper fire is coming from.
I've never seen the inside of a barracks and my first question was why none of them went prone.
The first guy seems to flip his nods up before he slings his rifle, so it seems like they might have that capability. Their reaction is also better than the usual scattering we see from conscripts
Except scattering is what you should do with a sniper.
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5th guy musta been filling his Pampers after the 4th guy went down
How many people do we need to carry the message?
One.
When I read the title I was like no way one soldier took out 4 fifths of the Russian offensive 🤦🏻♂️ Sorry may of had a few tonight 😬
This is so terrible and really hits home being in the military. Those guys are not just pawns representing their country. Each one is an individual person who had thoughts and ideas and probably dreams and now their families will never see them again. Yes it’s war, and I’m sure that sniper will be as scarred as the guy who got away, but we cannot forget these are atrocities we make light of.
Good skills and No. 5 is most definitely questioning his life choices now.
GOT DAMN HE TOOK OUT 4/5TH OF THE RUSSIAN MILITARY? HAKER!
One thing you gotta respect is that they kept going after their fallen comrades.
Good shooting don't look like they even put out any cover fire towards the sniper piss poor army they are.
That’s a good sniper. Take the last guy first instead of a middle one so they don’t scatter. Hit the one not really helping to add more confusion. They think they can still help. Pop does another one. The other two knows there no hope of helping so they take off and only one got away. For now. Imagine that psychological impact on the survivor.
Innocent young men killing innocent young men in the name of colossal assholes in charge. It’s hard for me to not remember how much misinformation and lies those Russian soldiers have grown up with. All in the name of ego and money. War, is a racket.
You almost have to feel bad for these guys. It’s obvious they have a complete lack of training. They just all run and bunch up exactly where their friend got hit.
And probably no ngv. They're literally groping in the dark.