Testimony Of Ukrainian Soldiers Captured In Russian Kursk Region

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On January 5, 2025, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) attempted a breakthrough in the direction of Bolshoye Soldatskoye and Berdin in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. The AFU used powerful electronic warfare to disrupt the Russian Army’s use of drones, deployed troops in a wooded area and employed two of three prepared columns of equipment. However, the Russian Armed Forces adapted to the tactics of the AFU and repulsed the counterattack.

As a result of this offensive, the Ukrainian forces lost a large number of manpower and equipment. Near the village of Berdin, Russian assault fighters captured more than 20 AFU servicemen from the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade and the 225th Separate Assault Battalion.

A group of fighters from the 82nd Brigade had been redeployed from the Sumy region and had been trained by instructors from the United States and Europe.

“There was a girl on tactical medicine. American. And then there was tactical training. But there was no Englishman, there was a Dane. Well, and an American Marine,” said one of the Ukrainian prisoners.

The captured soldiers complain that they were shelled as soon as they approached the settlement.  All of them claim that the commanders threw them to certain death.

“We were shelled as we approached the settlement. We had many wounded. We were told to wait until morning… We went there without knowing where to go. We were told to occupy the village and keep a perimeter defense and that was it…”

“We were thrown like meat. We were told we would just stand and control, but we ended up being thrown into the middle of nowhere. There was no training”…

Dmitry Mesyakov, 225th Separate Assault Battalion :

“I am a contract soldier. We were taken from the zone, 4 platoons…. We were sent to the assault. I saw 4 cars, 12 people in a car. Guys say that there were 6 cars”.

Dmitry Derevyankin, 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade:

“I joined the AFU as a conscript, served two and a half years. Then I signed a contract because my 400 UAH [10 USD] salary was not enough. I wanted to have a normal life, and I had to provide for my family. Contractual service – 21 thousand UAH [495 USD] a month. Some people lacked money because they gambled”.

“From Sumy region we were sent on a task. We got to the Kursk region, our equipment was hit, we went to landing from there. Then we were given the task to go on instead of retreating.”

Vladimir Petrenko, 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade:

“We wanted to retreat, but they told us that we couldn’t go back, that we had to go to the point and disperse there. By the time we reached the point, half of our men had been killed. We told them to take us away, to evacuate us. But no one took us away, evacuated us… They took me without a jacket and I froze.

Some were forced to sign a contract, some were caught on their way home from work, but all were just “meat” in their command’s plans:

Andriy Matvienko, 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade:

 “It doesn’t work like that in Ukraine. They have such laws there. We are not asked if we want to serve or not, we are forced. We are not allowed to pass, the Territorial Center of Recruitment drive through the streets, go through houses, catch people, it is impossible to go to work at all”.

Vladimir Timofeev:

 “They (the AFU) brought us in, unloaded us. There was no support, nothing. And they told us to occupy a trench and to stand until the last”.

Alexandr Sychov, 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade:

“I was caught by the Territorial Center of Recruitment personnel and told: let’s go, let’s check your documents and we’ll let you go in 5 minutes. They went through a medical examination instead of me… They sent us to the Kursk region. Our task was to go to a point, to make a circular defense. We were told that there was no one there, and as soon as we left, we were hit. We spread out on the landing. We reported that we had a wounded man. They said, “Leave the wounded man and go to the point”. We went to the village, we were shelleed by mortars. We had 4 dead and 6-7 wounded”.

“They (NATO) have turned Ukraine into a training ground. They dispose of their weapons on the territory of Ukraine”.

Soldiers told how they were forced to stand to the last man without fire support and transport.

Artyom Golovko, 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade:

“We expected to be evacuated… But we were ordered to continue the offensive on our own without equipment”.

Stanislav Kaptunovsky, 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade:

«I ended up in the Kursk region as part of the 82nd Airborne Assault Brigade, and I got into the 82nd Brigade right after the training center. I was forcibly taken to the training center by the Territorial Center of Recruitment personnel in the Sumy region and loaded onto a bus. After that I did not see my family and friends».

The POWs also said that they were not given the opportunity to wash themselves and their clothes properly. The last time they bathed was a month ago.

“We washed our faces off the bottles. We were not allowed to wash our clothes. If we have some free time, let’s say, after classes, they would find some pretext to line us up, tell us something, so that we didn’t have free time”.

The AFU’s attempt to break through the defense in the Russian Kursk region turned out to be just another “meat assault” for PR purposes. Based on the “quality” of those captured and killed (mostly recent convicts or hastily mobilized), it once again becomes clear that the Kyiv regime does not care about the fate of people it uses in military operations. After the failure at the initial stage of the advance, Kyiv’s new adventure in Kursk focused on PR campaign to demonstrate its foreign sponsors that the UAF is still able to carry out offensive operations on Russian territory.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• UAF Defense Crumbles West Of Kurakhovo. Kyiv’s Campaign In Kursk Loses Steam
• Zelensky’s Last Hope. Forced Conscription Threatens Social Explosion In Ukraine
• Fleeing From The Front. Ukraine’s Armed Forces Break Record In Number Of Desertions

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