Soldiers of the 22nd Mechanized Brigade captured another group of Russians in the Kursk region.

Jesus fuck, they look like teenagers. Second from the camera looks like a dude I played smash bros with.

Glad they made the brave choice to surrender. Makes me feel grateful I had a peaceful childhood.

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That's not unusual for lots of armies, tbh. That's what war is without fail: young people dying for the ambitions of old people.

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- We let kids join the army at 18. We don't let adults rent cars until they're 26
  
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Most of the “defensive” forces that Ukrainian soldiers are capturing are likely conscripts.

So yes, very likely these forces almost solely consist of teenagers that are highly under-geared, severely under-trained, and likely have been routinely mentally, physically and sexually assaulted.

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- "conscript borderguard" is roughly on the same quality level as "foreign/penal battalion", except the latter are usually motivated via blocking troops.
  
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Given the fact they can be conscripted at age 18, they probably are.

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That’s what armies are, young men being sent to die.

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They must be so dumbfounded how professional the ukrainians are. They know how they would deal with POW themselfs. They know how they treat each others in the ranks. They know how they would deal with a Ukrainian POW. They would rough them up constantly and set an example on some of the POW not shying away from murder. But these ukrainians, they do not do these.

If there are two braincells left in their propaganda rotten brains, and they somehow managed to rub these two braincells together to create something like a reflection or genuine thought, they must realize that they are the bad guys. After a week or two as a POW, their grudge cant hold up. They must realise that they get treated better than in their own company.

Some might go back home one day and will struggle to connect the dots of what they experienced. Some will not speak about what happened, as it would make them "a ukraine brainwashed faggot" in the eyes of odinary russian citizens who can not comprehend a functioning society. Some will try to speak out, others will not dare. But they all bring back just another puzzle piece into a failed society and the faint idea, that the russian society doesnt have to be like that. The imprisonment as a POW might as well be the best time they ever had - and that gonna gnaw on some of them for the rest of their life. Deep down, some will realize their contraphobic society shaped their disenthral lifes. Some will stay hooked to the hate and harm and transfigure it as a part of the "russian soul". Others will question yet again on why russia can never get better - and who is holding them back from better lifes.

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These are the words I've been looking for. Going back to Russia after surrendering to Ukraine is going to be such a weird experience. These are people who have grown up their entire lives being tortured by their government. These are people who have tortured their POWs in an act of theater to make them fear being captured because they know how awful being tortured must be because they've seen it. And then they got captured and experienced... A brief reprieve. What will they experience when they go home? Will anyone listen to them? Or will the friends and relations they return to be too stuck in their ways of their thinking and think that these former POWs were brainwashed by the Ukrainian therapists who are helping them navigate the disorienting nature of not being tortured?

And the thing is... No matter what, these are still the seeds of something because a few people will listen, and suddenly the Siberian, Ukrainian, and Chechen separatists and anarchist terrorist cells will seem less like fringe groups bent on destruction, and will seem more like the only reasonable people around. I don't think it will all happen fast enough for Ukraine to be who dissolves the Russian Federation, but the people who will are fighting alongside them now. They're in their POW camps. They're people who aren't of fighting age yet, but whose fathers will come home and tell them what they saw in Ukraine

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If there are two braincells left in their propaganda rotten brains, and they somehow managed to rub these two braincells together to create something like a reflection or genuine thought, they must realize that they are the bad guys. After a week or two as a POW, their grudge cant hold up. They must realise that they get treated better than in their own company.

I imagine it must also create terror for the russian soldier. How many years have russians been told how horrible, weak, and ineffective Ukrainians are? ALso, how the invasion of Ukraine to wipe out the "monsters" there. Now the "monsters" invade russia. It wasn't supposed to be that way! These Ukrainians are calm, collected, and move with purpose. These are not at all the animals that russia told the russian soldiers they were.

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- And they're not a bunch of country farm idiots fighting alongside western forces either. The high tech advanced weaponry is being operated by Ukrainians. Russian soldiers are discovering for the first time who they're actually fighting. They were told it was NATO forces and some Ukrainians. Turns out its Ukrainians with some NATO equipment. That itself must be kind of... Unsettling. It raises question for the Russian soldier about what's really going on. Entering the Kursk region was a huge shock to the world, but I don't think anyone realized the propaganda value of entering Putin's sphere of misinformation with truth.
  
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I'm very curious how the Russian military deals with returned POWs. Sending them to the ranks would be crushing for morale, but they can't afford to just ignore free "trained" soldiers.

Or are they so brainwashed that they all think they're the exception to the rule of brutal torture?

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https://youtu.be/PfxabSYFs88?si=uoKrKBQ8x4oCAtTh

forced to subsist on a borshch made from four kinds of beets

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The Russian economy is booming so much that conscripts have multiple uniform designs and color combinations to choose from!

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They also know the importance of lightweight and comfortable clothing, unlike Ukrainians wearing thick heavy costumes, not adjusted to the hot summer weather at all

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It's so depressing that their uniforms are not even uniform.

Were they asked to bring their own camo?

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Yeah, throw a mtn dew in that Pic and it looks like some West Virginia militia group.

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- We'll have to wait and see when the cargo pants and jeans start showing up.
  
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There are definitely videos from early on telling conscripts to write home for gear (including anti-gunshot tampons), and Russian soldiers in airsoft gear (including foam armor).

And these guys are the real dregs, just border guards not expecting to ever open fire.

So... Probably yes

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Can I have a granola bar or something? Out base ran out of food 4 days ago.

-Russian soldier, probably

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Blame the rittenhouse lookalike chunk that cant go prone

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Thor just smiling away

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I sure hope these guys don't play pokémon.

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Send them to look for the Pokémon called Putin. I heard it's rare and desireble to catch.

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- Careful, PUTIN likes to use DEFENESTRATION. It's usually SUPER EFFECTIVE!
  
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That tank lurking in the background ... I'm glad no one's wearing orange jumpsuits

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I don't get that one?

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- There was a series of ISIS videos back around 2014 that featured prisoners of ISIS being executed in orange jumpsuits. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24539201
  
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Hopes: Share kvass, talk about how you can all remove Putin

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There was a series of ISIS videos back around 2014 that featured prisoners of ISIS being executed in orange jumpsuits. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24539201

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