drone1

from antimilitarismus

 

The mainstream media publishes articles about how terribly the Russian army treats deserters. “Chained to trees, locked in metal tanks, or dragged behind off-road vehicles—this is the reality for Russian soldiers who refused to fight in Ukraine,” they note. (1)

As usual, there is not much written about the equally horrific massacres of Ukrainian deserters. One thing is certain, however. The combat capability of both armies is partly based on violent mobilization and torture techniques designed to discourage desertion and force even those who do not want to go to the front to do so. While thousands of soldiers are trying to desert, others are being sent to the front against their will, hoping to live to see another day. That is, unless a “suicide” drone armed with explosives happens to fly into their heads. On the internet, we can see videos of such drones belonging to the Ukrainian army massacring Russian soldiers on motorcycles, in trenches, on roads, in forests, plains, and elsewhere. (2)

 

In most cases, footage of these events is accompanied by articles that celebrate them and cynically dehumanize the victims. They never ask who these people are or how they ended up in a place where they were mercilessly killed. It is impossible not to notice that even the anti-fascist and “anarchist” movement is organizing collections for drones for the Ukrainian army. And because — like the pro-Western mainstream — this “radical left” environment also presents the war as a defensive action against occupiers, it probably doesn’t worry too much about the fact that its drones may well be massacring Russian soldiers who were forced to the front under threat of punishment. In the logic of a “defensive war,” every Russian soldier on the front line is a Putinist and an occupier. (3) Thousands of deserters and forcibly mobilized soldiers are nothing to the supporters of this logic and can be mercilessly eliminated. (4) But what such an approach has to do with the declared struggle for freedom and justice is something that the proponents of this line will not explain to us. After all, most of them do not have to face fire on either side of the war line. They simply send a financial contribution from time to time from the safe haven of the pampered petty bourgeoisie (or their descendants) and then write an ideological shitstorm full of vague phrases about the struggle for freedom and self-determination of the Ukrainian people.

 

______________________________________________

In contrast, soldiers on both the Ukrainian and Russian fronts are largely proletarians who do not have access to these privileges. Yes, they are proletarians, because the proletariat has not ceased to exist just because some individuals have decided to remove this word from their vocabulary. The truth is that many proletarians are on the front lines involuntarily and under duress (5). Very few have the means or documents to flee abroad. Many live in illegality: they avoid banks, leave big cities, hide in forests. If anything makes sense from an anarchist perspective, it is to provide them with support, not to build drones that will massacre them or track them down so that someone else can massacre them.(6)

Solidarity with deserters and those forcibly mobilized!
Resistance to those who build machines for their killing!
Class solidarity against the murderous logic of war!

_______________________________

NOTES AND SOURCES:

(1)
Ruští dezertéři jsou brutálně mučeni. Svědectví přináší CNN | Newstream

(2) For example, here
https://cnn.iprima.cz/ukrajinska-droni-elita-v-akci-madarovi-ptaci-vyzobali-rusy-na-motocyklech-ti-zkaze-neujeli-479487
https://cnn.iprima.cz/zabery-ukrajinske-likvidace-okupantu-ruskeho-vojaka-zachranila-lopatka-467046
https://cnn.iprima.cz/zabery-hruzy-v-ocich-kratce-pred-vybuchem-ukrajinske-drony-likviduji-ruske-okupanty-475517

Also here:
https://www.msn.com/cs-cz/zpravy/other/ukrajinsk%C3%A9-drony-ude%C5%99ily-na-rusk%C3%A9-voj%C3%A1ky-v-lese/vi-AA1JzxmT

What do we see in this video? A man in uniform with a backpack is walking through the forest when suddenly he is shot by a drone. To the viewer, it is presented as a sensational video of how Ukraine’s defenders stopped the occupier. However, it is not at all clear from the video who he was, why he was there, and whether he wanted to be there at all or was forced there by officers under threat of punishment. He is dead, and no one will ask him.

(3) Reality speaks for itself. Forced mobilization and high desertion rates in the Russian army prove that not every soldier on the front line is a Putin supporter. On the contrary, many are victims of Putinism, just like those who are being shelled in Ukrainian cities. https://antimilitarismus.noblogs.org/post/2025/02/04/over-russian-18000-soldiers-desert/

(4) The Solidrones initiative, which reportedly manufactures “drones for anti-authoritarian fighters in Ukraine,” states: “Defenders consume tens of thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles every month, because a precise drone strike can take out a significantly more expensive tank and cripple the occupiers’ advance.” https://www.afed.cz/text/8191/solidrones

There is no doubt that they operate drones, which are weapons designed for destruction and killing. But even if someone wanted to argue that they can also use supply or reconnaissance drones, it is important to clarify one thing. Even in such cases, drones serve as a means of support for senseless killing. There is no significant difference between a forcibly mobilized soldier being shot down directly by a drone and being tracked down with the help of a drone and then killed by infantry (often also supplied by drones), artillery, or the air force.

A number of other questions are also relevant.

Can the so-called “anti-authoritarians” who manufacture or operate drones decide how and against whom they will be deployed? That might be conceivable in the case of guerrilla warfare organized autonomously outside the state and against the state. However, this is not the case with these people, who, as they themselves acknowledge, are integrated into the official state army of Ukraine. It is therefore the army authorities who determine how the drones will be used by the “anti-authoritarians,” and there can be no question of autonomy of action. What will these “anti-authoritarians” do when their officers next order them to use drones to track down deserters attempting to escape? After all, this is one of the agenda items of the Ukrainian army, which they voluntarily serve.

(5) According to statements by surviving Russian soldiers, they were not allowed to evacuate because a blocking unit guarding them from behind would not let them leave their positions on the front line and would shoot if they attempted to retreat. Forcing soldiers to advance may therefore be less risky in some cases than retreating and deserting. This cruel tactic was used by the army during the Stalin era, and today the Russian army is returning to this practice.

(6) The forcibly mobilisation and subsequent killing by drones is also well known to the population in Ukraine. However, we do not know of a single case where the production of drones by the Russian army has been financed with money by so-called anti-authoritarians or anarchists. In any case, we must condemn the forcibly mobilisation and murderous use of drones against the working class, whether these practices are used by the Ukrainian, Russian or any other state army.

Comments

anon (not verified) Tue, 10/14/2025 - 23:29

This grim reality of not just generalised war but this war in particular is one if the many things that made me remove myself from social media. Forgetting political stances for a moment, trying to take engage with everyone contributing to dehumanisation in comments under visceral videos of someone's son being brutally killed and take a humanist approach and trying to remind these people that many of these folk are poor, under privileged, purposefully under educated and sometimes sent to the front under coercion; well pointing that out just makes you as bad as the "enemy" and a target yourself for their dehumanisation. Sad to see humanity repeat the same cycles it swore to never forget and never repeat.

Wayne Price@ (not verified) Thu, 10/16/2025 - 12:18

Among other issues, the writers condemn the Ukrainians for killing drafted and possibly anti-war and working class Russian soldiers. (They condemn the use of drones for such killing, but the principle would be the same for rifle bullets.) They condemn this when done by the regular Ukrainian state army, but their argument would apply just as much if an anarchist Ukrainian guerrilla-militia was using drones and bullets to kill Russian drafted working class soldiers. It would apply also to a hypothetical Ukrainian revolution, which might use drones and bullets against the counterrevolutionary regular Ukrainian army--full of drafted proletarians. (Of course, other tactics, such as propaganda to the working class ranks of the opposing army should *also* be used.)

The implication is clear: Under no circumstances should the Ukrainian people (mostly workers, the poor, and farmers themselves) fight back and kill invading Russian imperialist army soldiers or even counterrevolutionary Ukrainian soldiers. This is not anti-militarism. It is absolute pacifism. While I think that non-violent resistance tactics may be useful at times, to refuse to resist by arms is to surrender beforehand.

anon (not verified) Fri, 10/17/2025 - 01:00

In reply to by Wayne Price@ (not verified)

Wayne, do you really not see the difference between a state army and an anarchist militia or guerrilla movement? A state army serves to defend the state and therefore chooses means that lead to this goal, including the physical elimination of everyone on the other side of the war line. Anarchist militias oppose all states, so their violence is selective. Anarchist militias certainly do not attack everyone who has been forcibly conscripted to the front lines. Anarchist armed structures distinguish between voluntary supporters of the regime and those who have been forced to serve it. The state army does not apply this selective approach. For example, for the Ukrainian army, every Russian soldier is an enemy and must be eliminated (even if he is perhaps an opponent of Putinism), but every Ukrainian soldier is an ally and must be defended (even if he is a Ukrainian neo-fascist). Soldiers in the Ukrainian army have no autonomy. They cannot choose who to kill and who not to kill. They must obey the orders of army officers. Anarchist guerrilla groups are organized so that members can decide against whom to use their weapons. In short, the so-called "anti-authoritarians" on the front lines have no opportunity to practice anti-authoritarian principles. They serve the state. They die and kill for the state.

Purgatorius (not verified) Tue, 10/21/2025 - 03:29

In reply to by anon (not verified)

Seems like you don't have an understanding of reality of war. It's unrealistic and frankly absurd to suggest that defending forces should somehow distinguish between voluntary supporters of the regime and those who have been forced to serve it. How can it be done when those people are storming your defence forces? Does it matter are they putinist nazi believer or apolitical underprivileged working class person who joined the army for slight chance of improving their economic status if they are coming to kill you?

Bad Immigrant (not verified) Mon, 10/20/2025 - 12:46

According to russian independent media in the period between 2022 and 2025 at 220 000 russian soldiers were killed in Ukraine (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/08/29/okolo-220-tysiach-rossiiskikh-voennykh-pogibli-na-voine-v-ukraine-news). Out of those around 15000 were mobilized. Which makes it less than 7% of all casualties. Most of russians dying in Ukraine are the people who joined the occupational forces for money.

And yes, if russian mobilized soldiers do not resist russian army then they become part of the machine that commits war crimes and promotes genocide. Those who don't want to resist can lay down their weapons and get captured by ukrainian forces. Or go to prison colonies in Russia, where they have a bigger chance of survival and keeping at least part of their humanity.

And yes, in the past anarchist partisans were killing enemy combatants without asking them if they were forcible mobilized or volunteered to join invading armies. No anarchists do not have a special power to figure out who is a true working class hero who is ready to fight class war rather than the imperial war.

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