The average life expectancy for a Russian soldier in Ukraine is between 20-30 minutes, CIA director John Ratcliffe said. Speaking at a defense summit in Pennsylvania, he attributed the deadly conditions for Vladimir Putin’s forces to Ukraine’s combat drones equipped with AI. “What I would say is, our intelligence is consistent with some of the open-source reporting you may have seen in Ukraine,” Ratcliffe said. “So the average life expectancy of a Russian recruit, right now, arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine, is estimated to be between 20 and 30 minutes.” “And that’s because AI-powered drones have gotten to be such specialized, low-cost killing machines. And it’s why we’re now four and a half years into that conflict,” Ratcliffe added. Ukraine said this month that Russia has lost about 1.4 million soldiers since the beginning of its full-scale invasion, with over 1,000 of the Kremlin’s troops killed or wounded almost every day. In May, Ukraine’s defense ministry said it was killing roughly 200 Russian soldiers for every kilometer of territory that Moscow claimed.
Ok I would make fun of Russia but I would rather not believe a CIA spook who’s probably a trump appointee, of all people.
Yeah part of this sounded like a sneaky ad for killer drones? Like to manipulate weapon stonks or something.
if you watch the drone combat sub on reddit, it is a turkey shoot and has been for well over a year. Bleak, graphic and bloody footage of first POV of human after human getting blowed up by an angry mosquito or a 2 liter bottle filled with explosives dropped from above. Sooo many, and the worst are the ones who only get injured and take their own lives than suffer any longer, all caught on drone video…Its frightening to know what the future of warfare looks like and how effective it is against walking meat sacks
The reason we’re 4½ years into the conflict is that Putin is a piece of shit
Honestly, my heart goes out to all these people. Every person on both sides of this senseless invasion is a person. They have parents who probably love them and want to see them again. Friends, siblings likely.
Also, Russia has a long history of conscription, right? I’m wondering how many of these soldiers want to be there.
So much senseless violence and loss of life on both sides, and for what? It’s gross.
There hasn’t been much conscription on the Russian side (though recently that’s changing) because conscription is tremendously politically unpopular, most people joined the war on that side by willingly signing a contract because they’re offering huge sums of money compared to what Russian people outside of the biggest cities can make.
The Russians have been taking from small rural villages and newly annexed territories in the far East among ethnic minorities. They say they’ll pay them well but their commanders pocket the bonuses and pay, and send the men to die in meat waves. It’s only this year that the war is reaching Moscow and muscovites are forced to face the reality of war.
ICE is operating the same way
Probably a clause in the contract that they only get paid after returning from combat
No, they just don’t really bother actually paying it out that much or the officer just takes it.
Life is cheap in that part of the world
The Russian people need to start saying “no”. Putin is dweeby little nothing of a creature, not a powerful sorceror. Without people to do the evil for him there is nothing.
This, in fact, is a message to all the people in the world who are just thugs for their own nasty piece of shit “leaders”.
If the current quality of life for young adult males in Russia isn’t an eye opener for those who flirt with authoritarian leaders “for the lulz” I don’t know what will get through to them.
You’re not special, dear leader isn’t going to offer your uneducated ass a seat at the table - you’re canon fodder. End.
That seems to be the hardest part for way too many people to accept.
“You are not special. You’re not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else. We’re all part of the same compost heap. We’re all singing, all dancing crap of the world.”
So every single political or even many daily decisions people make should be from the perspective of how it effects/works for the avarage person. “But i’M spEcIaL”, no you’re not. None of us are.
That’s completely unfathomable to me, why or how do so many people think they are special?
is it the reason that Ukraine get more body on exchanges?
The swap took place at the Novaya Guta border checkpoint in Gomel Oblast, with Russia handing over 501 bodies of fallen soldiers and Ukraine returning 31 bodies of Russian servicemen.
https://thedefensepost.com/2026/07/17/ukraine-bodies-from-russia/
Not much left of Russian soldier bodies after they are killed by a Ukrainian drone. A few scraps, usually if they haven’t burned up in the fire started by camp stove fuel immediately after the drone explodes.
Are you ready yourself to join the front lines and get killed in less than 30 minutes?
If not you shouldn’t advocate for war.
Russia has never been more ripe for annexation by the USA. Unfortunately, republicans and conservative dems are literal dogs for putin.
This would end most of the election tampering happening in the world. Stop the meddling with subsea lines near russia. As well as end some proxy wars.
Attempting to annex Russia would end more than just election interference.
It will most probably end the world, yes.
Not an average if it is a range.
Pop goes the weasels. It’s only a matter of time before these start being used in other countries for assassinations. scary future indeed.
Street Justice for white collar criminals like Martin Skreli…
Jammers for personal use is going to get so hot
That’s the point why AI based drones are getting popular or why that tech is being developed. Those are immune to jamming. Those operate on their own, detecting and eliminating targets.
Area jamming was effective in the beginning when drones were radio or any wireless signal controlled.
Then came fiber optic cable based ones to counter the jamming, but those do have a limited range and still must be operated by someone.
Now we have AI controlled drones. Immune to jamming, similarly to fiber optic controlled ones, but no need for an operator to control those after releasing.JammersFalconry for personal use is going to get so hot.They have fiberoptic cables, good luck jamming that.
This is great for Ukraine, but not so hot for the future of warfare. We may have to get good at building EMPs for when the urban pacification terminators come.
but not so hot for the future of warfare.
Maybe the future of warfare is to figure out a better way for people to settle their differences.
That would, of course, mean we would first have to figure out how to prevent narcissistic megalomaniacs from being in positions of power.
yeah I can’t help but read all this as very bad news indeed in the longer term. There’s nothing stopping Russia, North Korea, or indeed any random manchild billionaire deploying this tech within the coming months or years and deciding who they think should die. It’s not like nukes which are difficult to get material for and difficult to build. Most of the advanced stuff is the software, which can be easily copied.
What was stopping russia to deploy it a year ago?
Like now, they don’t have the AI technology.
This isn’t AI related. Russia was counting on a fast win to steal the resources they would need to lock it in. They didn’t get one.
What i mean is they know about it and had opportunity to do it too, but they didn’t. That means there is something else they are missing
Or they miss nothing but they are not as cruel and dystopian as our media presents them.
So they are choosing to lose thousands of soldiers everyday because it would be cruel to use more effective weapons? What the fuck are you talking about?
I thought about North Korea not using killer drones against its own population. For Russia in Ukraine, AI would make sense. So, why are they not using it? I think they don’t have the technology. But also, why is Ukraine not using it?
Right, they decided to invade out of love.
Lol, you dummy
So, what’s the better explanation?
Hahahaha, yes the Russians will concede because of morality
That seems unlikely.
Why? I haven’t heard about existing autonomously flying killer drones yet. Why should Russia have them?
If drones are operated fiber optically, does an EMP even work?
EMP destroys electronics. The fibre optics, plastic and metal will all be ok. the circuit boards will all be fried. Future drones will no doubt have emp protections, but its still early days
*fiber. Not fibree or fibray.
“Fibre” in English.
“Fiber” in Americanglish
There is more than one dialect of English.
Emps are good, but they don’t care if you are friend or foe, or civilian infrastructure and it doesn’t stop when it hits its intended target. So itll probably take out the next few Km’s
So you can probably just shoot it forward on the frontlines. But thats bot really how drone warfare works alot of the time
You’re confusing communication with what EMP is really good at - frying digital circuits
Fibre optic drones are usually carbon fibre shielded - which can’t easily be used with traditional radio operated drones because it blocks the communication
Carbon fibre would seriously attenuate an EMP in the same way as a Faraday cage
EMPs also usually require detonation of a nuclear device
Call of duty: drop and pop
The bravery and strength and heart and resilience of the Ukrainian people is awe inspiring…
imma doubt
So… they must be spawning in the grey zone… or are they being catapulted from rostov on don?
The source of this claim is a tiny anonymous telegram channel, that was then cited by NY Post, which was then presumably quoted by Ratcliffe.
It seems from HIS quote that he was referencing the CIAs own sources
“Our intelligence is consistent with some of the open-source reporting you may have seen in Ukraine,” Ratcliffe said
So why is the frontline not receding?
This is a really really powerful development for defending territory but not as great for going on the offensive as drones can’t directly take and hold territory. To take territory you need ground troops and armored vehicles.
A concentrated group of people that can be taken out at once or an expensive vehicle are tempting priority targets for drones, and drones are more readily replaced than men or tanks… and both sides have them. So attempting to take large swathes of territory is most likely to make whoever is attempting to advance get punished since they have to put prime drone targets in drone range to make the attempt.
So most advances such as they are are being made by tiny groups of people or individuals who infiltrate into the gray zone/behind enemy lines and then secure themselves a hiding area to operate out of before maybe linking up for larger maneuvers. The situation doesn’t really lend itself to big movements in the front lines even with a ton of people dying. In a way it’s kind of reminiscent of how trench warfare and machine gunsmade defending territory very powerful and led to the western front being mostly deadlocked with offensives being insanely bloody until the tank was more well developed and brought more mobility back to the offense.
For the most part Ukraine is content now to target Russian logistics from a distance. If the Russian supply chain is in shambles that weakens Russian use of drones and artillery at the far edges of their reach which could enable offensive operations that aren’t quite as suicidal as they are now.
Yeah, they said they kill 200 Russian soldiers for every kilometer they claim. That’s a steep price to pay for a little bit of territory, but it sounds like Russia is willing to pay it, and it’s working. Not for the soldiers, but for “Russia,” I guess.
It’s not working. Ukraine currently recaptures more than Russia is gaining and it will only get worse for the Russians from this point on.
What is even “Russia” at this point.
They should just split the countries into smaller territories and call it a day.
Cause if you think about that statement for a few seconds, it is unclear what it is even saying. 30 minutes in Ukraine? By what definition of Ukraine borders? The international ones? No matter how bad it is, that seems impossible. The Russian ones? Well, yes. Being behind the front lines is hella dangerous. Not sure how they would even get there. The de-facto controlled Ukraine territory? In that case, you are just saying soldiers that charge Ukraine defenses tend to die, which duh.
Semantics ruin everything 😃
Words are fucked.
