This is the moment the Russian army bombed its own soldiers with a drone as they tried to surrender to Ukraine.
Harrowing footage shows an assault group of seven clearly holding their hands up as they come out from the cover of foliage before lying face down on the ground.
They had advanced into territory held by the Ukrainian army on the Donetsk frontline but decided to give up when they got cornered.
But it seems Putin’s commanders were not prepared to let the soldiers, who may have been forcibly conscripted to fight, walk into Ukrainian territory to safety.
The distressing video, which has been released by the Ukrainian armed forces, then shows a kamikaze drone exploding – killing all but one of the men who is seen running for his life.
It is not clear if the bombing was deliberate, but the alleged war crime could be seen as an escalation of recent reports that Russian snipers have been shooting deserting soldiers.
In the video the Ukrainian drone commander told the UAV pilot: ‘Don’t throw, don’t throw.’ This was an instruction not to drop bombs on them.
‘You’ll overtake them and lead them to the south,’ he was ordered.
The Ukrainian drone then started directing them towards positions of Kyiv’s 33rd separate mechanised brigade.
It was at this point that the Russian kamikaze drone struck and began bombing the surrendering Russian soldiers.
Such action is considered a war crime since by surrendering the soldiers are covered by the Geneva Conventions.
One man is seen on the footage running ahead of the drone strike and manages to escape the ambush from his own side.
The brigade indicated that of the seven surrendering, he was not the only one to flee.
Explaining the footage, the brigade said: ‘The Russian visitors made the right decision – to surrender. Seven of them emerged from the grove [but there was] a catch.’
They added sarcastically: ‘As soon as [our drone] pilots began withdrawing with the captives, the Russian army carried out a courageous shelling…..
‘They accurately took down several [men] – not all made it safely into the hands of our brigade…’
The release of the footage comes after a frontline soldier, known only as ‘Viktor’, said morale among Russian troops has dropped to an all-time low and he is not alone in his sentiments.
His thoughts were conveyed in an intercepted message provided to I Want To Live, a project set up in 2022 by Ukraine’s military intelligence, which helps Russian soldiers safely surrender, Kyiv Post reported this week.
During the first stages of the Second World War on the Eastern Front, the Soviet forces suffered from heavy losses – but also from mass retreat and desertion – as Nazi Germany advanced towards Moscow.
In an attempt to counter this, on July 28, 1942, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin issued Order No. 227 – known for its famous line: ‘Not a step back!’.
The order commanded each front (or Soviet military formation) to create up to three penal battalions made up of 800 middle-ranking commanders and high-ranking commanders accused of disciplinary problems.
These battalions were sent to the most dangerous sections on the frontlines.
From 1942 to 1945, more than 422,000 Red Army personnel were sentenced to join penal battalions.
The order also established ‘blocking detachments’ at the rear, tasked with shooting ‘panic-mongers and cowards’ within the Red Army’s ranks.
In the first three months, blocking detachments killed 1,000 penal troops and sent 24,000 more to penal battalions.
Records from October 1942 show that 15,649 soldiers were picked up having fled the Stalingrad Front. Of these, 278 were shot dead.
By October 1942, the idea of regular blocking detachments were quietly dropped by Soviet leadership.
He also said commanders had been known to abandon their units without food, water or means of communication.
In a message to his wife, Viktor wrote: ‘Today someone tried to leave, and they were shot dead.
‘A sniper is watching from the corner. There’s no way through.
‘Commanders bailed, so survive however you can… Nothing good here, I wish they’d kill me sooner, it’s all f**ked up.’
He added that some soldiers have contemplated blowing themselves up with grenades so that they will be taken off the battlefield to recover in hospital, but – having anticipated this – Russia’s military commanders are no longer evacuating the wounded.
In a previously intercepted call, a Russian commander was said to have threatened soldiers and his comrades with death if they refused to participate in an assault on the Kharkiv region.
Reports that Russian snipers are turning against their own troops have been circulating since the early months of the invasion, which began in February 2022.
Nine months into the conflict, UK government defence chiefs revealed that Putin would deploy special units to shoot his own military if they retreated from the war in Ukraine.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Russia would deploy so-called ‘blocking units’ which ‘threaten to shoot their own retreating soldiers in order to compel offensives’.
Stalin similarly used ‘barrier troops’ in the Second World War as part of his ‘No One Turn Back’ order.
Last June, shocking footage emerged of Russian ‘barrier troops’ appearing to shoot their fellow soldiers as they attempted to flee the field of battle.
Captured by a Ukrainian drone and posted to online messaging platform Telegram, the footage shows three Russian soldiers aiming weapons in the direction of at least seven comrades, and seemingly firing off rounds.
The latest revelations about the state of morale among Russian soldiers comes as military experts estimate some 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded during the Ukraine invasion.
In addition to this, more than 35,000 civilians have been killed or injured, six million forced to flee and almost 20,000 Ukrainian children forcefully deported.
Russian forces have been creeping forward on the battlefield this year, but the progress has been costly.
The UK Defence Ministry estimates more than 1,000 Russian troops are being killed or wounded each day.
Closing his visit to the United States, Zelensky released a statement on Saturday thanking US President Joe Biden for the latest military aid package of $8 billion, and the US Congress for its ‘unwavering’ support.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned European countries against seeking confrontation with Moscow in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York.
Western countries ‘hope to defeat Russia using the illegitimate neo-Nazi Kyiv regime, but they’re already preparing Europe for it to also throw itself into this suicidal escapade,’ he said.
‘I’m not going to talk here about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power.’