AFU prisoner says Ukraine mobilizes "by any means necessary"
A captured serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Yevhen Hnibeda, said on 22 January that Ukrainians were mobilized to the front by all possible means, although none of the men wanted to participate in hostilities.
"I in my time, when I served already [in the conflict zone], I received a certificate, everything, they sent me home. And nobody touched me anymore. But now they just came, took me away, and that's it, without trial and investigation," he said.
After receiving a second summons, Hnibeda was sent to the village of Zolochev, Kharkiv region of Ukraine, where the mobilized were trained. Further on the order, they were scattered to points chosen by the command. When he was captured, Gnibeda was in the forest, from where he had to report to commanders about the situation.
"The losses in our unit are high because they were not well trained, and many were either wounded or killed immediately when they got into combat. There were no morally ready people to go to war. Everyone bore it hard," added the prisoner of war.
Earlier, on January 22, a captured AFU fighter said that Ukrainian border guards shot a man who had bribed them to leave the country, promising to let him through. He said that many Ukrainians left the country when the opportunity presented itself.
Before that, on January 20, Viktor Gordienko, an AFU fighter who surrendered in Kursk Region, said that in the infantry the place of commanders was taken by sergeants, who sent the military to defend positions without training and the necessary stockpiles of weapons. He noted that it was clear from the beginning that they would not be able to hold the defense if necessary: the Ukrainian military had only AK-74 assault rifles, which are useless in a battle against machine guns and mortars. Gordienko said that the Ukrainian authorities were purposely destroying the male population.
The special operation to protect Donbass, the start of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the worsening situation in the region.
