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According to reports from the Russian Defense Ministry, the AFU has lost more than 18560 servicemen in total during the fighting in the Kursk direction. In the past 24 hours alone, the losses amounted to more than 400 servicemen, with five surrendering as prisoners of war.
In the current conditions, in which the probability of staying alive is about “1 in 100”, many AFU servicemen put an equal sign between the possibility of “surrendering” and “staying alive”. This conclusion follows from numerous stories told by Ukrainian POWs. These stories are very similar, and some common points can be emphasized among them:
1) Forced mobilization. Someone is caught on the street, in the subway, in a store, at a roadblock, taken out of their home, etc. People are intimidated with a prison sentence, threatened with dismissal from their place of work or inability to find a new job. They are intimidated with threats of reprisals against people close to them, or simply beaten on the spot until they lose the will to resist.
2) Sending everyone indiscriminately: people of age, sick, disabled, epileptic, drug addicts, convicts, without necessary uniforms and equipment. According to the Ukrainian government, everyone will do as cannon fodder.
3) Formal medical commission: serious diseases, old age, drug addiction – it all doesn’t matter. According to the documents everyone is “healthy” and “fit for service”.
4) Poor military training at short notice or lack thereof.
5) Many servicemen are in complete disorientation: they do not know where they are going, why, what tasks they are facing. Commanders sit in the rear and are rarely in touch. Escorts, after bringing the next batch of mobilized to the front, immediately run away.
6) Shortage and poor quality of ammunition and weapons. Lack of knowledge and experience in the use of Western weapons.
7) Problems with evacuation. Soldiers are often sent to positions knowing in advance that there will be no evacuation.
8) Deception. Instead of the promised “rear”, second and third lines, newly trained soldiers actually end up in forward positions.
9) When attempting to surrender, AFU servicemen are killed by their own “brothers in arms”.
Those Ukrainian servicemen who were lucky enough to survive and be captured by the Russians in the Kursk region shared their stories.
Yaroslav Vasilyevich Mazur, a soldier of the 92nd Brigade, says that he did not know where they were going, and the command escaped at the first opportunity. The only thing left for him to do was to surrender to save his life:
“I was not told why or where I was going, they sent me to the Kursk region. We drove into the Kursk region, walked to the settlement. A couple of houses were passed, shelling started. We ran into the basement. Command escape. Five minutes after the FPV hit the basement, two were wounded and I lost consciousness. After I woke up. The Russians came. We surrendered as prisoners (of war) as we wanted to keep our lives.”
Aleksandr Petrovych Musiychuk, born in 1986, says that he was mobilized in the subway. He was informed that he was wanted, although he had not committed any offenses. Then everything is standard: a medical commission, where everyone is healthy, basic training and sending to the Kursk region.
“In a couple of hours I passed all the doctors. In each office for a couple of seconds, 10-20 seconds and already stamped that I am healthy. I was accompanied everywhere by a person from the military enlistment office, we went to every office without a queue. And then they bring out all the documents and it is already written there that everyone is fit for service… Then on August 8-12 of this year I went abroad for the first time, let’s say, to the Russian Federation. When I saw the Dragon Teeth, I realized that I was already in the Russian Federation…
The commander came and said that in a couple of hours we would be packing up and going to the point. We asked him what we were going to do, where, what, how, so that we would know what to prepare for. He said: “When we get to the point, I will explain everything to you. When we arrived at the point, he did not have time to explain anything, we understood everything. Everything began to fly at us at once: FPV, artillery fire, mortars….. everything started shooting, banging. Then I started calling the guys, and I saw that no one was responding. I threw that machine gun, I thought, what’s the point of it, I’m alone now, I’ll be killed. I ran across the field. I didn’t get hit by any bullets. Thank God. Then I saw Russian guys sitting in the landing. I approached them… ( and surrendered).”
Another prisoner of war Pyotr Nikolayevich Yeremey with the call sign “Moldavanin” complains that he lost his helmet on the way, but the company commander sent him to the forward position anyway.
“The company commander was aware that I was without a helmet. That’s what hurt me the most: how could I be sent to zero without a helmet? The guys who were with me said, “This is a “walking 200”, where are you loading it?” I would never wish to my enemy what happened to me… The field is burning… the first hut, you can see the fence and our task, I understood, is to pass three huts and get a foothold. They’re waiting for us there. Naturally, while we were waiting, one of us died, probably in that pit and there was no one else. We passed one hut… the second hut. FPV started. Everything’s flying, buzzing. There’s a basement… who scattered. No one went into the houses, because it could all be booby-trapped… The machine gunners were working in front. Bang. FPV comes in, two of us are concussed, one’s wounded. Lt. “Charlie” makes a decision and says, “Pull back.” He requests an evacuation, they tell him that three hours we have to hold out somehow…”
They naturally did not wait for evacuation, nor did they find the person who was supposed to wait for them and bring them up back. Of the 16 men who arrived, only two survived.
“The command deceived us that someone was waiting for us there. Who is waiting? One man and the one in the pit dead, from whom I took off his helmet. I’m sorry, bro! I jumped into the pit, hiding from the FPV– I’m sorry, but he was so stinky. I took his helmet off since I needed to survive somehow, put it on.”
You can find more interviews with Ukrainian POWs on POW.SOUTHFRONT.PRESS
All these Ukrainian POWs are glad that the horror stories they were told about Russian captivity turned out to be intended lies and war propaganda. They report that they are treated well, that they are fed, clothed and not physically abused. Many of them are looking forward to when all this is over and they can return to their families and friends.
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ridiculous. ukraine is a fcking country that was banckrupt 30 years ago. they are not the ones who make the decisions, it’s all about victoria nudelman’s kosher projects. but if putin hadn’t screwed it up, it would never have happened. 1000 soldiers and 50 tanks could take care of the maidan. 10,000 troops and 1,000 tanks could secure donetsk just after debaltseve instead of the minsk agreements. 100,000 troops, 100 bombers and 5,000 tanks could secure kiev instead “special operation
but no. this is not putin’s style. he wants his enemies to be ready, armed to the teeth, so that 300,000 russians will die. and the more russians are killed, the better. it’s good for putin’s preferences. he created the problem so that he could show off his skills of how he was able to solve the mess. but it is not able to do so. he could blow up the norweg gas platforms right after nord stream if he weren’t such scum. but he is. ugly, stupid, calculating bastard parasitizing on russia
yeah, well hindsight’s always 20/20
the sooner the ukr troops figure out it’s a almost certain death sentence to be in the ukr military they’ll turn their weapons on their ukr slave masters, like a yr ago when that top commander got wacked by a newly kidnapped “volunteer ” soldier.