Eugene: «I had no choice… and I'm ashamed.» Photo: Paul Grover for The Telegraph.
Officers conducting POW research for the Ukrainian Armed Forces told The Telegraph that they noticed «several trends» among prisoners from the Wagner group and those who fight on the side of the DPR and LPR.
«They all talk about extremely horrendous treatment by their commanders,» they said.
“They are, without a doubt, cannon fodder. That is, they are not people, but simply impersonal tools to achieve Russia's goals.»
«Shot for failure to follow orders»
The officer said that several prisoners called themselves «disposable» after hearing their superiors give commands to colleagues, where they demanded: «Give us a few disposable things — we need to make an assault.»
«According to the prisoners with whom we are talking, they are forced to use detachments, which means they cannot retreat, no matter what,» — added one of the senior officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
«Otherwise, their own servicemen are shot for not following the order.»
The officer added that the regular Russian army considers themselves «Gods», and they «almost always lag behind everyone, on the third line or even further, rarely do» «dirty» jobs, don't go to the front lines, don't dig trenches, [and] have constant rotation and vacation.»
«They are always well equipped and have everything you need,» he said.
Bad equipment and preparation
For Eugene, the equipment he was given was not only of poor quality, but he was not sufficiently trained in how to shoot it.
“We were not respected,” he said, wiping his face with a damp cloth, to remove sweat and dirt.
Evgen agreed to speak to The Telegraph at a private open space in the Donbass, where he told what happened after he was «captured» by Russian troops.
“We were given clothes and taught theory,” he said.
“There were theoretical classes on assembling and disassembling the machine. That's all. There was no such tactical training, only theoretical. It was chaos. The Russian army is just destructive and chaotic.”
Bogdan: “I didn't want to fight. I had no desire, no mood.” Photo: Paul Grover for The Telegraph
Yevgeny, who worked as an electrician before the war and cared for his elderly mother, criticized the behavior of his commanders during the occupation of towns and villages in the Donetsk region.
“The commanders looted a lot,” he said. “They just cleaned apartments because they had the equipment to clean it all up.”
Now Evgeny wonders if it was better to be in jail than sign up for battle.
“Ukrainian troops would have come and liberated us,” he said.
“So it should be. Because just the devastation that our army left behind is an absolute horror, a catastrophe.”
“I won’t pick up a gun anymore”
As for the fight against other people born in Ukraine, he said that «it was disgusting».
"I won't take up arms again, no matter what. If necessary, I will go to jail.”
The Telegraph also spoke to Bogdan, 38, who said he had a regular office job before being mobilized.
Both Evgeny and Bogdan claimed that they did not participate in close combat. They said they were working as security guards, securing occupied buildings when they were taken over.
However, the UAF dispute this account, stating that the men were found with machine guns and were fighting in the trenches when they were captured.
Bogdan claimed that on the day of mobilization he went to work as usual, kissing his wife and child goodbye as he walked out the door.
Arriving at the office shortly after 9 am, the Russian authorities appeared and told him and his colleagues that either they had to agree to a fight or they would go to jail.
The last time he saw his wife and child was when they arrived at the sorting office later that day with a few of his papers and some clothes.
Since then, Bogdan has not seen them.
“I didn’t want to fight. I had no desire, no mood,” he said, lighting a cigarette.
He has no idea how his fate as a prisoner of war will turn out. His only hope is the end of the war.
“I would like the war to simply end, so that all people live, and so that not a single civilian population, neither civilian nor military, is killed,” Bogdan said.
«Just end the war.»
* The names of prisoners have been changed.
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