A video captured by an American volunteer in Ukraine has struck a chord on social media for its rare display of humanity in the corpse-littered forests of the Donbas.
The helmet camera video shows Russian fighters surrendering to an assault team as a former US Marine speaking a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian walks them through the capitulation process before slipping cigarettes between the teeth of the captured Russians.
The interaction has been viewed more than 1 million times on Telegram alone, where Ukraine’s 63rd Mechanized Brigade recently posted the clip, noting the soldier's "politeness" as he directs the Russian fighters: "On your knees, please."
Bruce, the American volunteer who filmed the video on an action camera attached to his helmet, spoke to RFE/RL while recuperating from shrapnel wounds received during another battle. The California native has asked not to use his surname.
“I don't have the urge to shoot everything that I see anymore,” the American says through the muffled audio of a captured Russian soldier’s telephone he is using in place of his own broken cellphone. “This war has caused enough suffering so if I can alleviate it in any place that I can, then I’ll do that, whether it be for people on my side or people on their side.”
Bruce believes the video resonated in part because of the calmness of the interaction despite the tension inherent in such a battlefield encounter.
The American says he felt compelled to join the fight against the Russian invasion while following the conflict from the US. “I felt like after the Marine Corps I had too much time on my hands. After work I was just sitting on my phone watching the news and seeing bad things happen in the world."
With the warfighting skills he learned in the US military, he says he realized, “instead of just being angry about it and ranting, I could come here and actually do something. I could pick up a rifle because I know how to use it, or I could use medical skills or whatever is needed. I could play a part.”
After arriving in Ukraine in the spring of 2025, he linked up with a group of other foreign fighters, from Ireland, Canada, and the US to join Ukraine’s 63rd Mechanized Brigade.
The American’s first engagement with Russian fighters was nearly his last. Late one night in the summer of 2025, he was holding a position with a Ukrainian fighter when Russian fighters crept unnoticed through the darkness to their position and tossed two grenades into the dugout.
The explosions perforated Bruce’s eardrum but a sandbag blocked the shrapnel. “I immediately picked up my rifle and started engaging, making sure that they're not going to push through the door through the smoke and the dust,” he recalls. “Following that, I heard one of them scream when I hit them. That was the first man that I've ever shot.”
After fighting off the Russian assault team, the American says, “it was just drone after drone after drone they were dropping [incendiary material] on us, they were trying to drop grenades into a hole in the dugout and then when morning came they hit us with two FPV [first person view kamikaze] drones to our door and destroyed everything.” The two fighters were eventually able to retreat from the position.
During that hours-long ordeal, the fighter says his thoughts returned to home, “like wanting to see your mom again, you know, thinking about your girlfriend, wondering if you're gonna do this again or that again, just wishing that you weren't there in that moment.”
After spending much of his time holding defensive positions in Ukrainian trenches and feeling under-utilized, Bruce put his hand up for assault missions. This most dangerous of all infantry assignments involves advancing into enemy territory to storm Russian positions through close combat.
When asked about the conditions in the contested land between Russian and Ukrainian positions where only assault teams now move through, Bruce says that “the front is a horrifying place.” “It’s kind of eerie, It feels like the apocalypse.” The bodies of fallen Russian soldiers are rarely recovered he says, meaning the fields and forests of the front lines are littered with human remains. “It feels like a zombie movie or something.”
Above this desolate landscape, he says “it's nothing but constant drones, whether it be your side or the Russians. A lot of times you have no idea whose drone it is.”
"If you're just walking around out there and a Mavic [Chinese-made quadcopter used largely for reconnaissance] sees you, it's probably communicating that to the mortar or artillery teams or FPV pilots and your best bet is to go and hide.”
Amid peace talks led by the White House of US President Donald Trump, Bruce says there is now little interest from frontline fighters. “To be honest, none of us really pay attention to those peace talks. We feel like the war is going to continue for a long time here,” he says.
As for the video, which has now taken on a life of its own, Bruce says he hopes it will have an impact on a frontline Russian audience. “I want [Russian fighters] to know that they can surrender. So I don't get killed f***ing going inside and storming their position, so I don't lose friends going inside,” he says, before apologizing for swearing.
“I want them to know that that's an option for them and that they will be treated OK afterward,” he says.
