Russian soldiers on the front line finish off their wounded comrades. This follows from numerous videos taken by Ukrainian reconnaissance drones, which Bild has studied.

In one such recording, which recently appeared on the Internet, a wounded russian lies in a trench and moves his arms and head. Another soldier approaches him, quickly examines him, and then smashes his head with three blows of the butt. After that, he steps over the dead man and moves on.

In another video, a russian soldier shoots a comrade, who is probably slightly wounded, who was walking slowly. A similar recording was published in June 2024. In it, three russian soldiers were attacked by a kamikaze drone. One of them was wounded and fell to the ground. The soldier running after him shot him in the head and ran on.

The prerequisite for such killings is that the advancing russian army units do not have an evacuation service, says Bild military columnist Julian Röpcke. A soldier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stationed near Pokrovsk explained to the publication that during the offensive, russian forces find themselves on a one-way street.

“There is only one direction for them. Either they carry out the task or they die. If we wound them, they survive only if they can return on their own. Otherwise, they die of blood loss in a few hours or days in some basement,” the Ukrainian soldier noted.

According to British intelligence estimates, by mid-June russia had irretrievably lost up to 500,000 soldiers. This includes those killed, missing, and those seriously wounded who are unable to return to the army.

According to US authorities, from January 2024 to April 2025 alone, russia’s losses at the front exceeded 400,000 people killed and wounded. During this time, the russian military was able to capture only a little over 4,700 sq km of Ukrainian territory, meaning that 84 soldiers had to be sacrificed for every square kilometer.

© 2025 Ukrainian News Agency