Remarkable footage shows a Russian soldier crawling “through hell” to surrender to Ukraine by communicating with a drone to track him from No Man’s Land – as missiles rain down on him from his former comrades.
The troop does not want to fight, so tries to communicate with a Ukrainian drone, which had dropped explosives on the battlefield in Bakhmut, that it wants to surrender.
The soldier, fed up with fighting Vladimir Putin’s bloody war, makes a series of gestures, including placing his arms in an “x” in front of his chest, to signal “no” to the drone’s camera .
The battered Russian soldier then reaches for a piece of white cloth which he shows to the drone to signal his surrender.
It comes as reports continue to surface of Russians giving up hard-won ground and fleeing their positions in the hotly contested bloody battlefield of Bakhmut.
Remarkable footage shows a Russian soldier crawling ‘through hell’ to surrender to Ukraine by communicating with a drone to follow him out of No Man’s Land
Dylan Burns, a journalist covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said he had ‘never seen anything like it’
The soldier was given the opportunity to surrender as part of the Ukrainian government’s “I Want To Live” project
The soldier was offered the opportunity to surrender as part of the Ukrainian government’s “I Want To Live” project, which began last September and provides a way out for Russian troops if they are forced to the front by the Kremlin.
The drone then leads the soldier through the trenches in Bakhmut as he is shot at by former colleagues in the Russian army and attacked by explosives.
As the soldier runs across the battlefield for cover behind a destroyed vehicle, an explosion narrowly misses him.
Dylan Brandssaid a journalist covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine that he had “never seen anything like it.”
He said: “A Russian soldier, unwilling to fight, is trying to communicate with a Ukrainian drone to surrender.
The drone gives him instructions to follow him, he steps through no man’s land and follows the drone, being shot at by his former comrades for daring to surrender.
“He survives an amazing journey through hell.”
The battered and bruised, but alive soldier then speaks briefly in Russian to a camera.
Ukraine’s “I Want To Live” project shared a video saying it was “the story with the occupier surrendering to the Ukrainian drone under Bakhmut [who] got a really “cinematic” continuation’.
However, his partner who fought in the same battle “blew himself up with a grenade “according to the method”, choosing an infamous and senseless death.
The drone then leads the soldier through the trenches in Bakhmut as he is shot at by former colleagues in the Russian army and attacked by explosives.
The Russian soldier flees across the battlefield and is shot at by former comrades
As the soldier runs across the battlefield for cover behind a destroyed vehicle, an explosion narrowly misses him
The soldier runs through a trench while trying to escape the infernal battlefield
The battered and bruised, but alive soldier then speaks briefly in Russian to a camera.
They added: “Another Russian soldier, who fell into the lens of a Ukrainian drone in the same positions, did not want to surrender to the drone, was wounded by the same drone and shot himself directly into the trench.
“Either could have done as well as their smarter comrade by turning themselves into captivity and staying alive. The clever one will soon return home to his relatives, alive and unharmed. The other two remain in Ukrainian soil.
“The moral of this fable is: Russian soldier, don’t listen to the butchers of the Kremlin, don’t believe their cannibal calls to die on Ukrainian soil!
“They will keep getting rid of people like you by the thousands and thousands. Ukraine, your life is more expensive than Russian commanders, because you can be exchanged for captured Ukrainian heroes.
“If you want to go home, surrender to captivity.”