File image.
Since the start of September, multiple videos showing Ukrainian troops getting captured in the special operation zone surfaced online, which indicate that the morale problem of Kiev forces is getting worse and suggest, at the same time, that the number of prisoners of war being held by Russia is still increasing despite all recent swap deals.
In many of these videos, it is hard to determine when or where Ukrainian troops seen in these videos were captured. One thing is clear, however, and that’s they were all taken as prisoners after their comrades were killed or fled leaving them behind for their fate.
In at least two of the videos that surfaced online in recent weeks it is clear that the Ukrainian troops were taken prisoners by Russian special forces during raids.
Such raids usually target very important posts, meaning troops deployed there, soldiers or officers, typically have a better understanding of the military situation of that particular part of the front, which makes capturing them whole lot more important.
Regular Russian military units have also been capturing Ukrainian troops in daring attacks. One recent video shows soldiers from the 144th Motorized Rifle Division, which operates within the Zapad [West] Group of Forces, capturing Ukrainian troops after storming a network of fortifications close to the settlement of Shandryholove in the Donetsk direction.
Ukrainian troops have been also getting abandoned by their command more and more often. This was clear earlier this month, when the Russian military cleared the area near the Kleban-Byk Resovouar, which is located to the south of the city of Kostiantynivka.
Hundreds of troops, reportedly upwards of 800, were left to defend the pocket at all cost, only to be abandoned after getting besieged by the Russian military.
Only dozens were still alive after facing a final offensive. Cornered along the southern bank of the reservoir, they had two options: surrender to die trying swimming to the other sides. Videos from there indicate the most surrendered.
Even worse are the so-called “flag-planting operations,” which Kiev has capitalized on in recent weeks to take edge in the media war.
Ukrainian troops get sent on nothing short from suicide missions into settlements recently captured by the Russian military to plant a flag and take photos for it. Of course, the lucky few who remain alive after that are those who get captured. A recent video from the settlement of Verbove in the Dnepropetrovsk direction shows one such case.
The increase in Russian drone operations have been also leading to the capture of more Ukrainian troops, who simply find themselves under the mercy of drone operators while taking part in raids or while just trying to deliver supplies to their comrades.
A recent video from the Sumy direction shows at least one soldier from Ukraine’s 225th Separate Assault Battalion getting captured like that. Russian drone operators honored the man’s request to surrender and instead of killing him he was led to safety.
Upon integration, the soldier, who turned out to be a neo-Nazi with a tattoo of a swastika, revealed that he was the only one to stay alive out of 21 troops who were sent on the radio. Had he decided to fight, he would have met the same fate as the others.
The Russian military has always encouraged Ukrainian troops to surrender, and recently it began to spread leaflets with instructions on how to surrender more often in all directions, using not only special artillery shells, but also drones.
Most recent Ukrainian media reports talk about 2,500 prisoners of war in Russia, although earlier this year the number reported was over 8,000.
Several swaps took place earlier this year, with the largest in May including a “1,000-for-1,000” exchange mediated through Istanbul talks and facilitated by the United Arab Emirates. Russia also returned thousands of bodies of slain troops to Ukraine as a humanitarian gesture.
The exact number of remaining Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia remains unclear, but it is likely more than what is being reported by Ukrainian media, and clearly growing.
Ukraine from the start has shown reluctance to deal with the issue of prisoners of war, with one of the reasons being the simple fact that Russia has the upper hand in this manner. Not engaging in regular swaps would help keep Ukrainian losses under wraps, and at the same time shield Kiev from certain legal and financial commitments for the time being.
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russia is a bunch of dirty traitors. i hope nato completely defeats them. i wish uyghurs trained in syria would kill xi jinping and someone who would hate russia would be president of china after him. that eventually everyone would abandon the traitor putler and only jolani would be left, and jolani would eventually drag russia into a war with china.
you aren’t even able to meaningfully and clearly express yourself … just a bunch of mental diarrhea.
go and seek help dude … you are clearly uneducated and have brainwashed yourself with all sorts of lies!
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another retarded dimwit squealing and butthurt as mother russia takes out the natostan perverts one and all.
you are a twisted little piece of filth.
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calm down asshole.
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fake news!!!
ukrainians would rather martyr themselves than be captured by orcs!!!
you can clearly see in the videos that they happily surrender to the superior force.
how blind, brainwashed or simply stupid must one be to deny this? what an public embarrassment!
the problem is thousands of ukrainians are forced to fight on because of this crap. the hypocrisy of the west was clear to all this week as israel was playing norway at football but russia is banned.
thank you mother russia for destroying the rump ukrapper natostan nazi$. euro peons with brains stand with you. onward to odessa, always a russian city and soon will be again. here’s to the end of the disgusting and evil anglozionazi empire of filth and the retarded eussr.
onward to brussels, sewer of natostan if that’s what the anglozionazi abomination requires. god bless russia and her gallant sons.