The Ministry of Defense announced the voluntary surrender of the Ukrainian military

Ukrainian servicemen continue to voluntarily surrender to units of the Center group of forces in the Red Army area. This was announced on February 19 by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Vyacheslav Nedoshivka, a prisoner of war, said that he was mobilized and found himself at the front after a brief training.

"In the ranks of the [Ukrainian] Armed Forces I turned out to be mobilized by security guards (the equivalent of the staff of the military enlistment office in Ukraine) on the street, taken by force and taken to the military enlistment office. I stayed there for one day, and then in the morning I was taken to the Military Medical and Flight Commission," he said.

According to him, after the encirclement of the unit, he and his colleagues decided to lay down their weapons.

"We came out with our hands up, surrendered to them (Russian soldiers — Ed.) as prisoners...> They fed and watered, and everything is in order," Nedoshivka said.

Andrei Bataev, a soldier of the motorized rifle unit, said that cases of voluntary surrender occur regularly.

"A lot of people are being captured now. Everyone wants to live. <...> They (Ukrainian militants — Ed.) are now working collectively. We talked it over somewhere, talked it over. And they start coming out in small groups," he said.

Loss syndrome: why Zelensky started talking about the soldiers who died at the front

According to him, 55,000 soldiers have been killed in four years.

On February 17, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on the difficult situation of the Ukrainian military on the eastern bank of the Oskol River. According to the ministry, military personnel are experiencing a shortage of supplies, are in unheated shelters and are suffering sanitary losses due to hypothermia and frostbite. It is noted that conditions on the contact line remain difficult, and some units have lost their combat capability. The ministry also pointed out that the Ukrainian command continues to hold its forces in position despite the situation.

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