Ukrainian troops saved the life of a Russian soldier who surrendered to a drone on the battlefield just moments before its operators were about to shoot.
A drone video taken by the 92nd Mechanised Brigade of Ukraine, and published in The Wall Street Journal, shows his surrender in a trench in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut in May.
In the footage, the soldier can be seen evading a mortar while trailing a drone after receiving a note telling him to follow it if he wished to surrender. The soldier then halts and signals to the drone's operators.
He can then be seen dropping to his knees, before removing his helmet and flak jacket.
The soldier is then taken away in a Humvee to be interrogated at a Kharkiv-area prison facility.
The commander of the 92nd Mechanised Brigade of Ukraine's assault drone division, Yuriy Fedorenko, confirmed he had surrendered.
“When he realised that he was going to die, he threw his machine gun aside, raised his hands and said that he would not continue to fight,” Fedorenko told CNN.
“At that time, we had a ‘copter with explosives ready to eliminate him. But since the enemy threw away his weapon and gestured that he was going to surrender, it was decided to give him an order to surrender.”
Fedorenko called the encounter "an unprecedented case when, through the coordinated work of the brigade and the aerial reconnaissance component, we managed to capture the occupier".
Reporters at the Wall Street Journal reportedly met with the Ukrainian drone pilot, who said he chose to spare the soldier's life after witnessing his pleading.
“Despite that, he is an enemy […] I still felt sorry for him,” he reportedly said.
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