A lone Russian soldier surrendered to a Ukrainian drone in Ukraine’s Bakhmut on Tuesday after asking it ‘not to bomb him’. An unmanned Ukrainian drone was flying over a Russian soldier when he begged the drone not to drop any bombs on him. Instead of an explosive, the drone dropped a message containing instructions on how to surrender. While he followed the instructions to surrender, the Russian artillery fired upon the area constantly, reported Ukrinform.
A video released by Ukrainian officials on social media shows what is purported to be a Russian soldier in the city of Bahkhmut who has signalled his desire to surrender.
The path to life – a russian soldier surrenders…
A russian soldier sees one of our drones and asks to surrender. A drone is sent out with a note with instructions telling him to follow the drone and surrender.
He does, while sometimes coming under fire from the russian side. pic.twitter.com/viyIPzDEys
— Aleksandr X (@AleksandrX13) May 10, 2023
In the two-minute video, it was seen that upon receiving the instructions the soldier followed it. As the Russian artillery was shooting at his back, the soldier was forced to step out of the trench onto open terrain. He was then escorted to a Ukrainian position by the drone.
Yurii Fedorenko, a drone commander in Ukraine’s 92nd Mechanised Brigade shared the video on the Telegram messaging app and wrote, “Bakhmut: a charitable act from the armed forces of Ukraine on May 9. The unmanned combat aerial vehicle squad detected a Russian soldier, who asked not to bomb him. Our team dropped him a note with a request to surrender and follow a drone. He agreed, although his ‘fellows’ were firing at his back.”
Mykhailo Fedorov, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister, confirmed that the soldier is now in Ukrainian custody. In a statement on Wednesday, he said, “The enemy noticed the drone and began to make gestures to show a desire to surrender. Infantrymen and scouts accompanied him all the way to Ukrainian positions,” reported The Telegraph.
This surrender came as Ukraine made gains on the southwestern corner of Bakhmut.
Following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilisation to bolster his invading forces, Ukraine published detailed steps on how to surrender including a telephone hotline dubbed ‘I want to live’. The first use of drones being to lure Russian deserters who wanted to surrender was last reported in November 2022.
