Captured AFU soldier told about refusal to place mines against Russian military personnel

A serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Mykhaylo Kostyuk, who was taken prisoner in Sumy Region, has said that at the front he did not take his automatic rifle off the safety and refused to place anti-tank mines. A video of him was shown by the Russian Defense Ministry on January 9.

According to the military man, he was mobilized fraudulently: he came to Lutsk for a marking, where he was told that they would take his documents to be checked, but in the end he himself was brought to the military enlistment office.

"At 12 o'clock at night we were collected and taken to Kamyanets-Podilskyi. There was a concept of how to hold a machine gun in the hands and how to use it. Well, they didn't teach us anything else like that. In sapper work they taught more theoretically than practically. As soon as you were caught, you either went to jail or straight to zero with a machine gun, and even worse - with a shovel to zero and dig without armor and so on. That's what the bosses told us," he shared.

Next, Kostyuk was sent to Sumy region. He and other military men were ordered to install mines.

"We refused to perform the task. We were told that refusal was not accepted. When we were returning, there was heavy shelling. We were, it turned out, thrown in and didn't come back. And we didn't know what to do and surrendered," the soldier added.

After that, the military went into a dugout, where Russian fighters found them.

"We did not even take our automatic rifles off the safeties and did not unfold them. I was treated well in captivity and am being treated well now. <...> It's good here, better than sitting in the trenches and freezing and afraid," Kostyuk concluded.

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Earlier, on January 7, the captured serviceman of the AFU Mykola Potseluiko told how the command of the military unit formed a group of elderly and sick people to be sent to the front. According to him, the command deceived them, saying that they were going to a safe place for only three days as guards.

In April last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (his term expired in May 2024) signed a law on toughening mobilization. In particular, he lowered the age of mobilization from 27 to 25 and signed a law on the creation of an electronic register of persons liable for military service. There are no provisions on demobilization in the documents.

Martial law in the country has been in force since February 2022. At the same time Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization. Later, the Verkhovna Rada repeatedly extended its effect. Most men between the ages of 18 and 60 are forbidden to leave the country.