Brutal footage recorded by a now deceased Russian Soldier shows exactly what it's like to be on the receiving end of an ambush inside of a tree line. This is why the infantry must react instantly with violence of action.

When you find yourself in an ambush situation, there are two correct responses and you have a 50/50 chance of surviving regardless of which one you pick. The first correct response is to immediately lay down a base of fire while egressing from the kill zone to reconsolidate and counter-attack. The second correct response is to immediately lay down a base of fire while advancing towards the enemy out of the kill zone in an immediate counter-attack. If you choose wrong, or don't immediately choose at all, you will inevitably end up like the Russian Soldiers in this found footage tape released by Ukrainian forces conducting combat operations near Kharkiv.

On the receiving end of an ambush, you have no initiative whatsoever. You're also right where your enemy wants you. The purpose of an ambush is to quickly eliminate the target inside of the kill zone in a manner that gives them no means of fighting back. Your only hope when on the receiving end of an ambush is too attempt to regain the initiative through pure violence of action and fire superiority. Fire superiority gives you the ability to maneuver towards the contact or away from it to a position of cover. It also allows you to get out of the kill zone which upsets your opponents ability to take the fight where they want to. Violence of action gives you the ability to retake some sense of initiative from your opponent. Without any initiative whatsoever, you might as well just lay down and accept your fate.

The Russians in this video stood little to no chance of surviving this situation from the get-go. We immediately get the idea that these guys are second string Russian troops. At best they're reservist infantrymen. Everything about their attitude and demeanor in the first part of this video screams complacency. Following that, the Russian who is recording apparently has no sense of priority in combat. Instead of maneuvering to cover and returning fire, he decided to maneuver to cover and pull put a camera so that he could record the scenes of grizzly chaos happening all around him.

When contact occurs, you execute the immediate action drill and respond to the threat with more violence of action than your opponent. Otherwise, you turn into a brutal found footage film.