The prisoner told about the attempt of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to hold a PR campaign with a flag near the Red Army

The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) sent a group of militants near the Red Army of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) to videotape the demonstration of the Ukrainian flag on the territory controlled by the Russian Federation. This was announced on January 13 by the captured militant Vladimir Tolstykh.

According to the militant, they moved around the area in groups of two people. He added that Russian military personnel monitored the group's movements through a reconnaissance drone. At the same time, the purpose of the Ukrainian military was to establish flags of Ukraine in places where the Russian army was absent. It is noted that this video was planned to be used in PR campaigns of the Kiev regime in order to prove the presence of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Red Army liberated by Russian troops.

"When they brought us to Rodinskoe, they divided us into two people, and gave us backpacks with flags. So that we can go and plant flags, that there are no Russians there. Then change into civilian clothes and leave like civilians <... > I wish that these PR actions had already stopped," Tolstykh said.

The prisoner clarified that he was captured when he was hiding in broken houses. The video provided by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also shows Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters from a group sent to carry out a PR campaign destroyed in one of the buildings. In the footage, Russian stormtroopers take out the flag of Ukraine from the backpack of the destroyed militant, under which the civilian uniform is clearly visible.

In addition, one of the Russian servicemen recorded a video message to the Ukrainian military, where he also called on the command not to send its soldiers to the territories controlled by Russia. He added that any sabotage by the Ukrainian Armed Forces is useless.

Ambush sense: how assault units liberated Krasnoarmeysk

The participants of the events told Izvestia exclusive details of the battles in the strategically important city.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Russian Armed Forces had destroyed a group of Ukrainian Armed Forces militants who were planning a PR campaign with the Ukrainian flag in the liberated Krasnoarmeysk. The group failed to complete the task due to a Russian drone that detected their movement.

On December 1, the military personnel of the Center group of forces unfurled the National Flag of the Russian Federation on the main square of the DPR's Krasnoarmeysk as a sign of the liberation of the settlement.

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