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Russians are employing this dastardly new technology called "mines" which no army on earth has encountered before, least of all those of the NATO members like France, Germany and the UK.
this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
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the_dunk_tank
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this is why you should never take much stock from what POWs say while in their enemy's custody. from neither Ukrainian nor Russian POWs. It's easy to be like "oh, but they should know! they're first-hand witnesses of what they're talking about!" and that can be true but there's no way of knowing if they've been threatened to say what they said, or if their words have been taken out of context, etc.
If a thousand POWs say nothing, but a single one says "Oh yeah, the Russian/Ukrainian Army actually is doing these horrific acts, I totes saw them doing it, they ordered me to do it, and uhh they're about to collapse!" then that singular opinion will be shouted from the rooftops and it will be generalized and taken as gospel by the opposing side. Propaganda is about emphasising certain facts or opinions over others, even if those certain facts or opinions are held by a tiny minority and are patently false.
Also there's an inverse survivorship bias going on here.
The least trained troops are going to be the most likely to be captured so what statements they make is going to be reflected by whatever the weaknesses happen to be that were contributing factors to them being captured.
They got overrun? Those who are captured are very likely to complain about lack of numbers and lack of support.
They were completely outmatched by better trained forces who used better tactics? Those who are captured are very likely going to complain about lack of training.
Their supply lines were interrupted? They're almost certainly going to complain about a lack of supply.
Never underestimate that those who are captured are probably going to be engaging in some degree of cope.
What you hear in the western narrative is largely shaped by all the strengths of the Ukrainian side and all the deficits of the Russian side (and these often get exaggerated and even universalised). But it's unusual to have much focus on the Ukrainian deficits and the Russian strengths.