Cannon fodder in its cruelest form.
Once you have decided the enemy are not human, they are merely cattle, then mistreating them is very, very easy for a large percentage of people. Easier too in the supportive surroundings of a highly normative military that itself lives on cruelty and cynical guile.
That sounds to me like a way to repatriate a bunch of POWs so you don’t have to waste men on guarding them, while saving face by pretending that it’s something else. I mean, this whole war, Ukraine has been making it as easy as possible for Russian soldiers to surrender, and there’s no way that it would be harder for actual Ukrainians. Doubtless a few of these prisoners will still end up killed in the chaos of war, of course, but I imagine that most would end up home.
If the Ukrainian defenders knew that was the unit they were facing.
And if the Russians didn’t have something akin to modern Einsatzgruppen following the unit to shoot any/everyone if anyone deserted.
Seems to me, the first thing the prisoner Ukrainians should do when being sent into battle is frag their Russian officers and then attack their Einsatzgruppen.
You’re assuming they gave the prisoners both guns and ammo. Or very much of each.
They undoubtedly do have guards. But it’s a lot easier to guard prisoners in a, you know, prison, than on an open field, right next to their allies. All it takes is for one of them to get a message, somehow, to the defenders, and they’re all free.
Bullets go both ways. If you’re going to be cannon fodder then shoot the cannon on your way.out.
They might not be given any weapons, just forced to move towards Ukrainian positions, thereby clearing anti-personnel mines by setting them off, and revealing said Ukrainian positions by drawing fire. Russians are using their own troops in this fashion so it’s not any sort of stretch to envisage them using POW battalions in the same way. Granted, when their own troops are used this way they do have Kalishnikovs.
The POWs would have to hope they could signal the Ukrainians they wanted to surrender before they get blown up by cluster munition shells from Ukrainian artillery, but of course they’re not going to have any sort of communications devices. Really they’d need to hope that Ukrainian intelligence knew where they were deployed and could communicate that with the front line troops.
They’re going to have arms. As in, their upper appendages. And in a modern war, there are eyes everywhere.
Another bad dude bites the dust.
I linked a missile attack on a Kherson FSB base a couple days ago. Tough week for the former KGB.
The Guardian feed
Nitpick: Einsatzgruppen – special purpose troops – is a German term for those who moved into an occupied territory to murder Jews and other undesirables.
The Russian armies had zagraditelnye otriady – blocking troops – starting in WWI to prevent, “unauthorized withdrawl.” During WWII they were mostly deployed behind penal battalions.
WWII Einsatzkommando in action.
It’s unfortunate (but also darkly funny to me) that this news follows the last post: German support for Ukraine will increase. What that means in a concrete sense is yet to be determined, or even if it happens. But the promise is nice.
60 minutes last night had a segment about Russia’s “cultural genocide” efforts in Ukraine. Russia has blown up, burned down, or looted hundreds of museums, libraries, churches, and historical buildings, doing their level best to wipe Ukrainian culture off of the map. Along the way, they’ve been torturing and murdering museum curators who are anything les than fully cooperative. In situations where they’ve been seen to be removing artifacts and taking them back to Russia, they claim this is for safekeeping. I doubt anyone believes these artifacts will be repatriated after the war.
The UK:
Emergency Field care has come a long way. The narrative is not that different from Up Front by Bill Mauldin. He was visiting a aid station when a wounded soldier came in. The medics followed a similar procedure as described in this article.
Except they have more equipment and training. A lot more soldiers are saved.
I just got done reading the history of the invasion of Okinawa at the end of WWII. As bad as that meatgrinder was, in the US forces if you made it to an aid station alive the odds were 92% that you’d make it, sometimes after a year or two of rehabilitation.
The Japanese forces it was more like 10%.
I’ve seen references to severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers going back to fight after their recovery. Good medical care makes a big difference in survival.
Has anyone read if Western countries are taking in Ukrainian wounded for medical care and rehab? That would be very important for amputees and head injuries.
Of course, Ukraine hospitals are doing everything they can.
Russian rebels kill top spy in border ambush
A paramilitary unit of Russian citizens based in Ukraine and fighting against the Russian government has claimed responsibility for the assassination of a high-ranking Russian intelligence officer near the Ukrainian border.
The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) released a video on November 9, 2023, allegedly showing the operation that killed Lieutenant Colonel Sergey Shaty, the deputy head of the border troops of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Naturally, the Russians cry foul. ‘How dare they violate international agreements!’
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the attack as a “clear provocation and a violation of the Minsk agreements”.
As of 5 September 2023 (TV report - German language - from the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) ‘more than 800’ Ukrainian patients had been treated in German hospitals, on the German federal budget’s dime. The report references ‘war injuries’ so that number might include a number of gravely injured civilians.