Captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine described the plight in the Pokrovsky direction

The Center group of troops continues to successfully advance in the Red Army direction, gradually encircling Pokrovsk. Meanwhile, the situation of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) in this area is getting worse. Five Ukrainian militants who voluntarily surrendered told Izvestia about this.

According to one of them, the shooter of the 25th airborne assault brigade, Igor Steblyank, who was forcibly mobilized on his way to the pharmacy for medicines for his sick mother by the staff of the Shopping Mall (territorial recruitment center, an analogue of the military enlistment office in Ukraine), the command sends recruits to the front without proper training. He clarified that at the training center where he was assigned, trying his best to avoid service, they conducted mainly theoretical and propaganda lectures.

The prisoner said that he and many of his colleagues constantly tried to escape, but they were threatened with execution. Upon arrival at the combat zone, where there were problems with provisions, Steblyanka noticed a lot of corpses of Ukrainian servicemen in the plantings.

"At our position, when we entered the basement, which was marked, there were two (dead. — Ed.), apparently these are the ones who were in prison before us. There was no way to take them out, they tried to bury them a little bit. <...> Local leftover conservation was found in the basement, and they mostly managed to survive," he said in an interview with Izvestia correspondent Dmitry Astrakhan.

There was no way to leave the basement, as the prisoner explained, for two reasons at once: firstly, they were afraid of their fellow countrymen who could shoot them, and secondly, they were afraid of attacks by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Therefore, he, who survived a suicide attempt, decided to surrender when Russian soldiers entered their positions.

Another militant Ruslan Basulkevich, who was also hiding from the TCC and went through the same path as Steblyanka, added that when the Russian Armed Forces came upon them, they did not even think to resist. He clarified that he had never personally seen his officers, who, moreover, did not intend to help their subordinates.

Soldier Dmitry Nemulako, continuing his story, recalled how superior military personnel who did not take part in military operations on their own shamed the recruits for their unwillingness to go to the front, arguing that they had previously fought for the younger generation and now "it was their turn." At the same time, the commanders treated their juniors with indifference, noting that there were no irreplaceable ones in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"There are a lot of FPV drones (RF Armed Forces. — Ed.), a lot of wounded, just lying around the landings. Very heavy losses," Nikolai Aribus, the captured commander of the 608th separate Jaeger brigade, summed up.

"I didn't even think about resisting the Russians"

Captured Ukrainian militants told about hunger, suicide attempts and flight of commanders

Alexander Ryabenko, a prisoner of war who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine after being forcibly conscripted, said on October 18 that the Russian military treats prisoners with friendliness and respect. According to the prisoner of war, he was captured by the staff of the shopping mall while trying to collect his salary. After a medical check, he was sent to the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, despite his lack of military skills.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.