The reason Russian soldiers behave as they do is they're conditioned to believe its totally normal military behavior. "If we don't do it that's what will happen to us," is what they're brought to believe. The Russian Federation is a pure terrorist state. The people of Russia need big daddy Putin to keep them safe from all the manufactured fears that big daddy Putin is feeding them. I was reading this morning about how Ukraine is currently having a bit of a public health emergency because there aren't enough therapists to help Russian POW's navigate the social whiplash they're experience from not being tortured. They were promised that nothing could be worse than a Ukrainian POW camp and they're finding it to be more pleasant than standing guard over Russian land. Like... These are people who have been so traumatized for so long that kindness is its own form of trauma. It recontextualizes all of their prior experiences and its a lot to take in.

It's really only the Russian military who has been awful, and it's almost tragic how much Putin and Russia's military doctrine have destroyed these kids' minds. They turned children into monsters, then justifed their actions by claiming the enemy is just as monstrous. Meanwhile, all of us outside Russia can't even imagine why a conscript wouldn't want to surrender to the Ukrainians, who have consistently shown themselves to be excellent people who are willing to care for these conscripts even despite some of the things they've done.

Given the things that have come to light since then, I can't fault them for choosing suicide over capture.

If blood is reaching your brain the human body is pretty resilient.

If a trauma patient can make it to a modern hospital while still alive they're probably going to keep them alive.

"I took out a grenade. He [his comrade] said, "Let's do it." We hugged each other, threw it on the ground and said some last warm words to each other. The comrade also has a leg wound.

It sounds like they were standing, dropped the grenade at their feet, and were hugging each other. The hug would possibly reduce some damage to center mass, and it sounds like both have injuries to the legs. If the grenade rolled away that would increase survivability. It also sounds like the interviewee took the brunt of the damage.

But don't listen to me, the closest I've come to a grenade is a Chipotle burrito with bad arvo

Well it was presumably a Russian made grenade, maybe it didn't have any fragmentation due to cost cuts. also presumably the Ukrainians were quick to find the two and treat them before they died to blood loss.