comment: >
  
  There's really no wrong answers honestly. Except perhaps the French bastards that just send peasants to die in droves while the knights watch imperiously from the backlines
context: They probably use the prisoners as lures to locate Ukrainian positions. >
  
  They are sent toward Ukrainian lines to find weaknesses. If they reach a certain point the commanders know that that spot is weaker. If they all die they know it’s heavily defended. >
  
  It’s like the days of forlorn hope vanguards. 
  You’d think in a day of armoured vehicles and drones there’d be a less horrifying way to locate enemy positions. >
  
  The difference between forlorn hope vanguards and Russian cannon fodder scouts is that the formers were the best soldiers who are well paid for the dangers they put themselves in, whereas the latter are just some expendable Vlads and Ivans.
  Pretty sad really >
  
  Yep, the idea of joining the "forlorn hope"-squad was that you'd scale the walls first in sieges but you would also get the first spoils of looting once the city was captured aside from getting paid higher daily wages than regular mercenaries and infantry. >
  
  In the French military it also guaranteed you a promotion if you survived, regardless of if the objective was actually achieved. >
  
  Honestly that sounds like a sweet deal >
  
  The casualty rate was… not exactly low. It was basically a suicide mission. But yes, it was seen as a great deal and junior officers with ambitions and no connections literally fought each other for the opportunity. >
  
  Either you come back alive with glory and money or it's not your problem anymore. >
  
  Wouldn't that give the other inmate soldiers more initiative to revolt as soon as they get a gun in their hands? >
  
  Who said they were giving them guns. >
  
  “You wear clicky vest and run into building komrad” >
  
  “Okay, so I run in there, bomb blows up, I come back for Party and Vodka, yes?” >
  
  -_- ok yeah >
  
  Damn at least the other guys are offering virgins.
  Oh, what's that? Uh huh, ok shit they meant neckbeard virgins. Not what I was hoping for. I'll switch back to the vodka and party. 
  Gimmie the vest. >
  
  Hah, imagine the afterlife is an eternity of trying to fend off rapey advances from horny virgin swampbeasts >
  
  That’s… dark >
  
  99% chance of death or death. Those are the choices. The fact that's the options they're given is insane. >
  
  Seems like turning your gun on your commanders would be an option >
  
  Honestly.  There's more of them than the commanders.  All they have to do is frag their commander and high tail it to Ukrainian lines.  They most certainly will be treated better by Ukraine and will be free. >
  
  That one dude ran off to be captured and was traded back to Russia only to have his skull smashed on camera_ >
  
  Do you have a link to an article about this?
  edit: found it, for anyone else looking, here is the transcript from the podcast where it’s talked about. >
  
  Are you talking about Yevgeny Prigozhin of Wagner?
  These people are beyond fucked up. >
  
  Yea. He even made a little joke about it >
  
  What an absolute ghoul. >
  
  after watching Russians play Rambo towards a Ukraine trench line while hip shooting, this is legit >
  
  Where did you see this? >
  
  /r/combatfootage probably. Not even the craziest thing from Ukraine on there. The footage posted of Russian soldiers getting smoked every single day is bananas. >
  
  The blow job grenade drop is pretty wild >
  
  Umm the what now? >
  
  A drone video of a Russian dude giving another a BJ. Drone drops a bomb and smokes them both. It’s fairly obvious and kinda disturbing. >
  
  At least they were happy in their final moments. >
  
  Based on the state of things, it's not clear it was consensual. There's an unholy amount of rape occurring within the Russian army, if claims are to be believed. >
  
  I wouldn’t doubt it. But I’m hoping they were both enjoying consensual deep throat action. >
  
  Dropping a dime on a sixty nine. >
  
  
  Captured Russian inmates who have been sent to the front lines in Ukraine as part of the Wagner Group, an infamous mercenary organization with ties to the Kremlin, say they've witnessed public executions of deserters and disobedient troops, per a new report from Polygon Media and the independent Mozhem Obyasnit outlet. 
  
  Maybe the Ukrainians should come up with some easy-to-follow instructions for those inmates to surrender that they can broadcast to them across the battle lines.
  
  The first batch of prisoners to survive six months of fighting in Ukraine was recently released back into Russia, with the head of the mercenary group celebrating them as heroes deserving of great respect while also advising them not to drink too much, do drugs, rape women, or kill.
  
  Was this generous advise like, “by the way…”? I’m kind of surprised that they’d actually give those sage instructions since repeat offenses would give them an excuse to send the offenders right back to the front lines. I guess I’m kind of cynical of Russian forgiveness and lifestyle tips generosity. >
  
  If they surrender, Russia will offer a prisoner swap and behead them. >
  
  I wonder if they get the option to just claim asylum and be removed from the prisoner swap pool >
  
  Do the prisoners get guns? Could they be used to fake-out weak spots to trap Wagner soldiers? >
  
  The prisoners do get guns, but they’re not the only soldiers. They’re intended to be the spearheads of assaults and bullet sponges. They get sent first, and if the Ukrainians fire upon them, that exposes the position of snipers, machine gun nests, artillery, etc, and then artillery or air strikes can be called upon those positions, or professional troops or trained reserves can follow up by storming enemy positions with knowledge of which positions to avoid and where to flank. >
  
  It's so hard for me to understand how people can use other humans in this way. I have a hard time doing this to my units in video games. >
  
  I know right? I am a pacifist to my core, I used to think as a kid that every person I killed in GTA could have experienced life just as I was. I couldn't imagine sending a real person to their death. >
  
  I've played most entries in the Total War franchise but I don't play factions that are designed around exploiting cannon fodder units. I know it's weird to play that type of game but still draw a line at what I consider distasteful. >
  
  I mean, you could still play the Vampire Lords in the Total War: Warhammer series. At least their cannon fodder is already dead.
  Or Greenskins. At least their cannonfodder is evil shroom-goblins that literally thrive in violence and reproduce by being in half and spreading spores. >
  
  I could, but I choose to play the faction that has dinosaur friends and infantry that live through most battles. Either them or the hippies that want everyone to just fuck off out of their forests.