Alternative theory, he is going to eat the donkey but that soldier doesn’t look like Kim Jong Il a donkey eating maniac. No this dude is carrying the donkey so he can work later. The mines in this field are anti-personnel that are only going to harm the guy who steps on them, note the dispersal. The donkey, untrained in military arts would get killed, and this guy doesn’t want to hump what looks like 81mm mortar shells. That is the donkey’s job.