I Still Felt Sorry for Him

By all accounts, Ruslan Anitin should be dead. Anitin is a Russian draftee who found himself on the edge of Bakhmut, one of the deadliest battlefields in Ukraine. Nearly everyone else in his unit was dead. Anitin carefully threaded narrow trenches, stepping over the crumpled bodies of dead comrades, as Ukrainian assault drones swarmed above, dropping deadly explosives. For hours, he desperately navigated trenches to escape the bombardment. According to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-soldier-surrender-ukraine-drone-3860ab6a" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">report</a> in the Wall Street Journal, the 30-year-old Anitin is a “slight man with a receding hairline,” who “studied to be a veterinarian and never expected to end up in the middle of a war.” Anitin believed the professional army would do all the fighting, and there would be no need for a draft. He was wrong. Exhausted, thirsty, and facing certain death, Anitin weighed his options. Wagner fighters that led Anitin and his fellow draftees to the front line trenches made one thing clear, per the Wall Street Journal story: <blockquote> “If you refuse to execute a mission, you get shot. And if you try to retreat, you also get shot.” </blockquote> Anitin decided that he would surrender to the drone. He dropped his rifle and gestured with his hands to stop the attack. He drew his finger across his neck and shook his head, to plead with the Ukrainian drone pilots not to kill him if he surrendered. <a href="https://medium.com/personal-growth/i-still-felt-sorry-for-him-89ad6929d669">Click Here</a>