In early June, Ukrainian troops launched a counteroffensive – and have already achieved little success in the Donetsk region, where they managed to liberate several villages.
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Next to them is the Ukrainian-controlled village of Velikaya Novoselka, where several Russian soldiers surrendered in the first days of the counteroffensive.
They are in Kramatorsk, where they were interviewed by The Wall Street Journal before they were sent to jail by the Ukrainian military. The Russians told them about how the Ukrainian army went on the offensive, as well as about the cruelty of their commanders, the decision to surrender and the fear of returning to the Russian Federation during a possible exchange of prisoners of war.
Journalists of The Wall Street Journal emphasize that they confirmed the faces of the Russian military, but do not name their names, since according to the laws of the Russian Federation, a criminal penalty is provided for surrendering to the enemy (imprisonment for a term of three to ten years). Under what circumstances the journalists communicated with the Russians is not specified.
Anatoly – a contract soldier from the Altai Territory
At home, he worked as a builder. According to him, he decided to go to war because so many of his friends and acquaintances did.
Propaganda claimed that Ukraine is bad, that Nazis live there. We heard it from everywhere,” the soldier recalls.
At the front, he was a driver, repairing cars and transporting drone operators, but in mid-May he was sent to the front line, located in a forest belt west of the village of Bolshaya Novoselka.
Last week, Anatoly says, “it was completely quiet” for several days. But then a powerful assault began. Chaos reigned around, shells were flying, people were running in all directions.
Between artillery and mortar fire, I peered into the fields, trying to find the enemy. But I didn’t see anyone,” says the Russian.
A few minutes later, the Ukrainians broke into the forest belt and threw hand grenades into the trench where Anatoly and his colleagues were sitting. According to the soldier, five soldiers next to him, including his friend Georgy, were killed.
I climbed out of the trench and yelled, “I surrender, I surrender!” – says Anatoly.
Anton, soldier of the Storm Z special unit
This group operates outside the army corps of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and came to the Donetsk region to replace the Wagner detachments that left the front line in early June. In March, Anton received shrapnel wounds to his head and limbs. The first was especially difficult, because of him the soldier began to stutter.
Despite the doctor’s conclusions about the unsuitability of Anton, his commander ordered him and other wounded to return to the front. Moreover, according to the interlocutor of The Wall Street Journal, the Storm Z fighters, many of whom were serving prison terms in Russia (Anton himself was convicted of drug distribution and signed a contract in order to receive a pardon), were forbidden to leave their positions, threatening that in otherwise, their own colleagues from the barrage detachments will shoot at them.
The commanders, according to the soldier, treated the lives of their subordinates as something disposable.
I’m starting to realize that we’re not on the right side in this war,” he stresses.
When the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the Russian positions near Bolshaya Novoselka, Anton was wounded in the leg, and then, while he was bandaging it, in the arm. The Russian recalls how he and several of his colleagues (most of them injured) shouted at the “invisible Ukrainian military” who were surrendering:
If we return, they will shoot us!
After that, they sat and waited for the Ukrainians to come and take them away.
Dmitriy
He was sent to the front in the Donetsk region with little or no military training – they gave him some practice in shooting and taught him how to provide first aid. The soldier claims that his unit, which was defending the village of Staromayorskoye, south of Velikaya Novoselka, lacked armored vehicles and tank crews.
According to Dmitry, in the units “morale is quite low.”
We were constantly in position without rotation. [Пізніше] It turned out that according to the documents we were fired a month ago, but this did not happen, – he said.
He recalls the day of the attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the positions of the Russians near Velyka Novoselka as follows:
They covered us with tanks, mortars, artillery. I didn’t know what to do. I was so scared, I panicked.
Together with a friend, Dmitry left the trench with his hands up and surrendered to the Ukrainian military. While they were knitting them, another Russian soldier jumped out of the trench with a grenade in his hands and wounded several UAF fighters before being killed.
Dmitry admits to journalists that he is afraid of a possible exchange of prisoners of war.
Considering how the structures work in Russia, I would refuse to be among those who will be sent for an exchange if there was such an opportunity, the Russian explains.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.