Left to Die, Russian Soldier Surrenders to Ukrainian UAV

The Special Operations Forces (SSO) captured a Russian soldier abandoned by his comrades, using a drone, according to SSO’s report via Telegram on Monday, Jan. 27.

According to the SSO, during aerial reconnaissance, Special Ops operators spotted a Russian soldier in the area. It was discovered that he and another soldier had been wounded a month earlier. However, the Russians left them behind without food, water, or communication devices. The second soldier died from his injuries.

Using a drone, the SSO fighters offered the wounded Russian soldier a chance to surrender. Video footage shows the drone delivering a bottle of water and a note, which likely contained a proposal to surrender. The Russian soldier immediately laid down his weapon and followed the drone.

Thermal imaging footage also shows the Special Ops soldiers moving toward the Russian soldier, who approaches them with his hands raised in surrender.

The report added that the Russian soldier, realizing that his comrades had abandoned him, recorded a farewell video, which was later found by the Ukrainian military. In the video, he says:

“I’m a fool, this, I think, is my last video. I’m abandoned to my fate—without food, water, and everything.

“Our slogans that we don’t abandon our own are all lies. They (Russians) saw me here, they knew I was here. It’s all propaganda, posturing. And if we win the war, it’s only at the expense of the meat [assaults] that they turned us into here.

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“If I knew now where I was going, I would never have gone in my life.”

At the end of October 2024, a video circulating on social media reportedly showed a Ukrainian first-person view (FPV) drone “forcing” a Russian soldier to surrender.

In the footage, which Kyiv Post could not independently verify, the Russian soldier initially attempts to fend off the Ukrainian drone, even resorting to throwing pieces of metallic debris from a damaged infantry fighting vehicle at it. It seems the soldier feared the drone might attack him or drop ammunition on him.

“But the drone from the 79th Brigade had both time and persistence, ultimately forcing the enemy to raise his hands and walk towards Ukrainian positions,” the report read.

Earlier in 2024, Ukraine’s West Operational Command released a video with a similar caption: “A MAVIC drone captured a Russian soldier,” adding, “The future has already arrived. Now our drones are capturing Russian soldiers.”

In this footage, the Russian soldier watches the drone overhead before eventually walking toward it as it guides him to a location where he can surrender to Ukrainian forces.

In an interview with Kyiv Post, a Ukrainian aerial scout said that the drone guided the soldier to a safe surrender point.

“Sometimes, a MAVIC drone drops a note saying, ‘Go surrender, you won’t be harmed, and they’ll feed you,’” he said, adding that the MAVIC drone operator can even “nod” or “shake” the UAV’s camera to indicate “yes”/“no.”

This suggests a developing trend where drones are not only used to defeat Russian military personnel but also to encourage their surrender.