Posted on 01/30/2026 9:28:40 PM PST by RandFan
They've hung him upside down like a slab of meat. Stripped to his underwear. Arms bound tight with tape. Ankles lashed to a tree trunk in the open winter air. The second man, attached to a neighbouring tree, is at least taped upright.
A man screams at them in Russian. He stuffs a fistful of snow into one of the men's mouths. Both cringe in terror, whimpering protestations and pleas.
This is no medieval dungeon - it's the Russian army in Ukraine in the 21st century.
The men's 'crime'? Refusing to walk, yet again, into what they call 'the meat grinder': frontal assaults against dug-in Ukrainian machine guns and drones, where the life expectancy of a recruit is measured in minutes. The punishment was filmed not so much to shame the perpetrators - whose voices were digitally disguised - as to terrorise the rest of the conscripts. This is not merely sadism; there is a method to it.
The men are a warning pinned to a tree like a note: advance or hang. This is now the lot of the Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.
Other videos that have surfaced tell the same story. Men are beaten with rifle butts for retreating, denied food and endlessly threatened with execution. In one case, a deserter is forced to dig his own grave before being 'reprieved' and sent back to the line in what is one of the most cruel forms of psychological torture. In another, a unit commander shoots over the heads of his own men to drive them out of a trench and into oncoming enemy fire.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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sounds similar to the “ICE” protesters.
The credibility of anything from The Daily Mail is highly suspect.
Without the photo and a true explanation of its origin, this is just agenda driven sophistry.
“ Can anyone explain what’s happening? Is this how they treat a ‘deserter’?”
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Perhaps you should ask Ukrainian psychological operations staffers…. they’re the ones putting together these videos. Gullible people will believe it. Just sayin’.
H/T Eleutheria5
Perhaps, Kremlin military will experience similar reality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4kQvkvGi9M
What’s the big deal of some photograph taped upside down on a tree??
Sophistry is an argument that makes no sense. If the photo is not genuine then it’s just phoniness.
Sounds made up.
Good thing it wasn’t a noose. That would really be bad.
Obama cut five high-ranking Taliban leaders loose from Guantanamo in exchange for the deserter Bowe Bergdhal. If only someone had taped Bergdhal upside down to a tree in the freezing cold.
In the Soviet Army, it takes more courage to retreat than advance.
Joseph Stalin
Losers accuse their opponents of misconduct; winners hold the field against, apparently, the entire EU, the US MIC, and the complete Poofter Davos propaganda machine.
Every army has to deal with those who don’t want to fight.
I posted a quote from Stalin because the article posted brought it to mind.
My post was not to advocate for one side or the other in the current conflict, it was I only to share a past Soviet attitude on the matter of defectors.
You’re saying Zelensky’s is any different?
He certainly isn’t a corruot ex-KGB agent that cares more about lining his pockets than about the welfare of the Russian citizens.
I never mentioned zelensky at all.
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