Russians claim Ukranian forces are dropping booby-trapped chocolate bars on Russian trenches.
"Found these in the Zaporizhzhya direction. The enemy is throwing chocolates with an explosive mechanism. Do not open them under any circumstances. Our guy was lucky that it did not detonate, otherwise he could have ended up crippled. I know guys whose fingers were torn off like that."
That does seem like something that would violate some rules-of-war convention.
Booby-trapping something that might be mistaken by civilians as a legitimate humanitarian aid drop risks non-combatant casualties and makes it harder for actual aid operations to operate.
If it is something they're actually doing, I agree. But this image looks like a crafts project gone wrong. Are we supposed to believe that the bit a the bottom is like, high explosive or something and that tiny wire is the primer?
Yup. I read the convention on mines recently in the wake of the pagers thing. Even if chocolate isn't humanitarian aid, portable booby trapped non-military items are forbidden if they self-trigger. (The pagers actually seem fine by the copy I read, because being remote-controlled makes them "other devices")
I've asked about 10 times, but no one can seem to provide a single reputable journalistic source. Is that really such a tall order? Follow facts, not feelings...
That's true! If it happened. Does anyone have any source at all for this from any reputable news organization?
It's an argument you could make, but there's already a convention against these specific types of weapon, even if you promise to be careful to clear them all when you're done.
Far more likely this is being prepared by Russians as they retreat in Kursk and blamed on Ukraine just in case any Russian civilians get hit. We know for a fact that Russia booby traps civilian areas which is a war crime. There have been zero cases of Ukraine doing this. So if a booby trap exists it should be assumed Russian.
Explosives don't seem smart. Why didn't they poison the chocolate instead? The enemy opens the chocolate, sees nothing wrong with it, shares it with their mates, and then now you've got five casualties who are none the wiser. Is that against the rules of war or something?
Booby trapping violate the same traties, especially hiding explosives in food. If ukrained wanted to commit war crimes, they would choose the smart way, this is just idiotic russians feeding lies to idiotic people
I've asked about 10 times, but no one can seem to provide a single reputable journalistic source. Is that really such a tall order? Follow facts, not feelings...
We're... supposed to believe Russia!? According to them, they still haven't violently invaded Ukraine, kidnapped children, or committed war crimes!
(To be clear, any war crimes need to be stopped, investigated, and prosecuted.)
EDIT: Wait, there's not even an article to look into sources? Just text and an image!? If this isn't my specific app not cross-linking properly, this post has to violate community rules, right? Or at least it should...
I've asked about 10 times, but no one can seem to provide a single reputable journalistic source. Is that really such a tall order? Follow facts, not feelings...
"Pro-Russian" sources? I think you misunderstand. I'm curious why there are no sources. Like, at all. Not just from you, but any that actually exist! I can't find anything. Here's a search that should be broad enough:
Adding "explosive" to the query doesn't yield any better results. We don't have to link propaganda, but if Russia is claiming this, there would be English-language articles about the claim, yes? Again, if anyone has any source, please post it... But no, "do your own research" isn't sufficient for a claim with literally nothing to back it up.
I agree the round disc and deliberately folded wire screams something to do with RF, but a) how powered and for how long? and b) why a chocolate bar if so?
It’s not like they hid a transmitter inside something that wouldn’t be taken apart or eaten, this was going to get discovered. Sneak a transmitter inside a PKM or radio, then let it be “captured” by the Russians.
Might even be passive, a tuned resonator. Heck it could be a bug, IIRC ironically passive bugs are (age-old) soviet tech. Imagine sweeping the whole frequency spectrum for resonators with 50s tech they were a nightmare to screen for.
and b) why a chocolate bar if so?
Maybe the idea is to track people for some time to gather intelligence on trench operations? Most probably aren't going to eat the thing right away.
The wire in the middle is bent and acts as a spring. The metal disk on top slaps the tan paper on bottom when the wrapper is removed. No power, all mechanical.