Why Russian Soldiers Commit Suicide on Camera En Masse?
Russian Federation is the world’s leader in recorded battlefield suicides, the reasons will surprise you.
If there’s one thing Russia has surpassed every other army on the planet, it’s the suicide videos.
Suicide is common during war. Soldiers have often chosen death over dehydration, plague, or capture. Some people die for a cause, like the Japanese kamikaze pilots.
But never in history have we seen such a massive barrage of battlefield suicide videos (extremely violent content warning). Enough to spawn several edits and remixes.
Why Russian suicide phenomenon is unique
Several things make Russian suicide videos stand out from anything I’ve ever seen:
- Lack of reason. It’s not just combatants who decided to take the easy way out. Many videos show Russian soldiers killing themselves in the open when they could retreat or surrender.
- The surrealism. Some things are straight out of a David Lynch movie, where a visually healthy soldier sets himself on fire by lying near a burning vehicle (I’m not sharing that).
- Exclusive to the Russian army. Despite fighting against a large Ukrainian army, this phenomenon is exclusive to the Russian military.
And, of course, there’s an issue of scale. No other army had their soldiers shooting, cutting, or blowing themselves up on camera quite like this.
The Russian soldier suicide rate
The sheer number and scale of Russian suicides on record is insane. This open-source research (violent content warning) reveals interesting facts:
- 105 instances of Russians taking their own lives have been recorded on the battlefields during the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war (up to August 27th, 2024).
- In 2023, one suicide was recorded every 17.4 days.
- The suicide rate increased in 2024. About 39% of the recordings are from this year alone, which is roughly 1 video every 3 days.
These are only the recorded instances. No doubt, this happens more often, and not only with the infantry units. Even Russian bloggers take their own lives.
For example, a pro-war blogger, Andrey Morozov (AKA Murz), reported heavy Russian losses of over 16,000 near Avdiivka. His post enraged Russian propagandists, who accused him of slandering the defense ministry. The Russian blogger shot himself shortly thereafter.
But if his death is logical, the reasons for the regular infantry suicides leave a lot of open questions that I want to pry into.
Why do Russians commit suicide: an analysis
The Russian war against Ukraine is unique because of the absolutely unhinged hierarchy and insane power dynamics of the Russian army.
The invasion force consists of Soviet-mentality commanders clinging to outdated manuals from rat-eaten commie books, private military companies filled with convicted felons, Nazi units that announce human sacrifices on their Telegram channels, and the “elite” Chechen TikTok units that no one dares criticize.
I’d be glad to tell you that this mix of cancerous personalities, degenerate ideologies, and inept leadership is why so many soldiers favor dying. And, sometimes, a Ukrainian FPV drone just so happens to be around to film the thing.
Of course, the reality is more complex.
Here are the cold, hard, absolutely serious, and realistic reasons why Russians keep offing themselves.
Extreme paranoia
Russian state propaganda paints Ukrainians as bloodthirsty monsters who’d love nothing more than to torture captured Russian boys or eat Russian-speaking babies. These powerful ideas, combined with impending life-threatening explosions and buzzing drone sounds, turn soldiers into paranoid wrecks.
The funny thing is that anyone can verify that Ukraine treats prisoners of war well. Compared to Russian captivity, it feels like a vacation. I’m not exaggerating.
You are a few seconds away from finding hundreds of Zolkin’s interviews with captured Russians or clips of Russian soldiers returning after captivity. This is enough to disprove any notions about Ukrainian torture chambers. But no. It’s easier for them to shoot themselves instead of doing a quick Google search.
Orders to never retreat
The commanders push the “die with honor” speeches instead of letting their soldiers surrender. It’s a documented fact.
Remember Wagner’s ex-boss, the now-dead Prigozhin, recruiting prisoners? He flat-out told these future Wagnerites to push forward, never retreat, and kill themselves rather than surrender. He explicitly mentions the firing squads for the deserters.
About a quarter of the invasion force is made up of these prisoner recruits — the epitome of “disposability.” So yeah, it’s no shock a lot of these suicide videos star them. Don’t feel sorry, though. Every single one came to Ukraine to kill in order to reduce their sentences for robbery, rape, pedophilia, and, sometimes, satanic killings.
Fear of their own forces
Leaked videos, drone footage, and interviews with Russian POWs point out that many commanders are threatening to torture and execute soldiers if they’re captured. For example, Wagner PMC posted videos of them executing their soldiers with a sledgehammer after a prisoner exchange.
Many Russians don’t believe their comrades will save them. There’s a video where a wounded soldier begs for help and gets a bullet to the head from his own.
Mind-deteriorating substance abuse
Trying to cope with the anxiety, soldiers start using whatever they can get their hands on. Yet, vodka doesn’t mix well with methadone.
The already abnormal level of paranoia skyrockets, depression sets in, and judgment goes out the window. Suicide starts looking like a good vacation package as you’re lying near a pile of dead comrades, the sounds of approaching drones piercing your eardrums like a bio-engineered mosquito (which is also a thing they fear).
Fatalistic nihilism
Russian military culture is steeped in a historical nihilism that runs deep in society. An ingrained fatalism, compounded by alcoholism, mental illness, and economic hardship, makes life feel “cheaper.” Even before the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war, Russia was one of the world’s top places for male suicide.
War made it worse. Everyone is disposable, and death, whether on the battlefield or by one’s own hand, is just another outcome. It strips soldiers of the will to survive, pushing them into the gun-to-the-head pipeline.
Unbearable burden of shame
Imagine an imperialistic and chauvinistic society where people are raised on stories of your country’s military might and superiority over neighbors.
In particular, the Russian apparatus has force-fed propaganda about Ukrainian inferiority since 2013. And then, a decade later, your mighty army is defeated near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Kherson. You have been struggling to gain a few kilometers of territory a month for the last year and always at the expense of your friends.
Then, people you used to think are lesser than you are encircling your positions and ordering you to surrender. You know your compatriots treat “failures” worse than used toilet paper. The shame might be so overwhelming that putting a rifle to your head becomes a better option than surrendering to a k**hol.
Problems at home
News from home — letters, calls, or even rumors — can spark deep despair, especially if women are involved.
This has been a problem in the Russian army for decades. According to the head of the Suicidology Department at the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry, Vladimir Voitsek, the primary motive is often discovering that a girlfriend or wife has married or slept with someone else.
Revenge against their family
Speaking of problems at home. These sorry bastards might be offing themselves on video to get back at their families.
It’s a known fact that many Russian families are quite poor. And not “American” poor. Like, really impoverished. Even the official “minimum subsistence level” baseline, known as a threshold of need, is set too low. If adjusted, about 40% (almost half) of the russian population lives in poverty.
Because of that, wives and parents of military-age men talk them into enlisting. Sometimes, they even rat on them to get them conscripted. If a soldier dies or is disabled during a battle, the family gets monetary compensation.
However, nobody gets money if a soldier kills himself. By ending their lives, especially when the FPV drone records them, they can deny their families the government payouts.
Stop it, lower the rifle, get some help
Russians and their friends should stop killing themselves on camera for the entertainment of the unwashed masses.
Are you a Regular Russian Citizen? Stop enlisting, learn Java programming, or try repairing that crumbling shithole you call your home. Are you a migrant? You better escape; they’re cracking down on you. A prisoner? Remain in your penal colony.
But if you’re one of the unlucky few forced into the Russian army? At least have the decency to replenish the Ukrainian exchange fund.
Contact the “Я Хочу Жить” project — it’s basically a Russian suicide prevention hotline. It’s there to help the servicemen of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus surrender voluntarily.
This way, you’re not supporting your country’s fascist war. Besides, think of how much better it is than having everyone on the Internet watching you slit your throat.
