Three Russian soldiers sell a BMP-2 armored vehicle to Ukrainian forces

@DefAviation ES 10·07·2022 · 20:19 0

The Ukrainian counteroffensive and the low morale of the soldiers of the Russian army are giving rise to some curious images.

Ukraine puts a price on Russian armament: this is what it will pay to those who hand it
The antiquated T-62 tanks that the Russian Army is abandoning on the Kherson front

One of them has appeared this week on social networks. These are images recorded in the Kherson region, in southern Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have made a rapid advance in recent days. In the footage, published on Wednesday by the Ukrainian Telegram channel @vanek_nikolaev, a Russian Army BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle surrenders to a small Ukrainian infantry unit. As the aforementioned source indicates, the surrender was previously agreed upon and consisted of the sale of the BMP-2 by its three Russian crewmembers to the Ukrainian forces. You can see the video here:

Let's see below some screenshots of the video to comment on some details. The video begins with Ukrainian soldiers in defiled positions, while the BMP-2 comes out from behind some trees, carrying two white flags.

The commander and gunner emerge from the turret of the BMP-2, only to find themselves immediately surrounded by Ukrainian soldiers pointing their guns at them.

The last one to get out of the vehicle is the driver. He does it with his hands up. In the images it is clearly seen that he is wearing the digital flora orderly uniform of the Russian army.

Once outside the BMP-2, the Ukrainians search the Russians and disarm them. These precautions are necessary in case it is a trap.

In this image you can see a Ukrainian soldier taking out the pistol that the driver still carried in his holster, hanging from his belt.

The Ukrainian unit could be special operations, as they wear Multicam camouflage uniforms, typical of these units.

This story does not end with the video we just reviewed. Yesterday, the Telegram channel that posted that video released a short footage showing the interrogation of the three Russian soldiers by a Ukrainian officer. The Russians appear with their faces covered.

The channel @vanek_nikolaev notes the following: "The whole operation took place, of course not yesterday, and the interrogation itself too I am posting a snippet of the interrogation (the whole video is about 36 minutes) of soups [nickname given to Russians] who contacted me and handed me the BMP-2 and themselves as prisoners. They received 30,000 dollars (plus 5,000 dollars for the good condition of the equipment, but without BC 😥)." The Ukrainian channel adds that these three prisoners "were changed face and voice, because their relatives are still in the territory not controlled by Ukraine".

The latter could indicate that more than Russian soldiers, they could be pro-Russian Ukrainians recruited in areas occupied by the Russians. Regarding the morale of the three soldiers who sold the Russian BMP-2, the aforementioned Telegram channel says that they were "pissed off" for having been mobilized. An anger that the "partial mobilization" ordered by Putin is causing among many recruits, and that has led hundreds of thousands of Russians to flee their country so as not to be mobilized.

As you may remember, at the beginning of April Ukraine offered money to the Russian military to deliver all kinds of vehicles, from planes to ships, tanks and other ground vehicles. The amount offered for an infantry fighting vehicle was US$50,000. In this case, the amount paid seems to have been reduced as part of the vehicle's equipment is missing (I don't know what the acronym "BC" stands for that Ukrainian source notes that they were missing from the BMP-2).