His interview with Ukrainian blogger Dmitry Karpenka was posted on YouTube. 19-year-old Yaroslav was drafted into the army in 2023. December 1 He said that he did not want to go to serve, and that he knew about the war in Ukraine only from the Internet – he was not interested in it.
He completed the “young fighter course”, spent two months in a military unit, and in March he was already at the border with Ukraine, where he was digging a trench. August 6 in the morning he was in his positions. When they arrived at the base, they were told to go into hiding, but in the evening they received the command to “fight”.
The Russian soldier said they split into combat squads and waited, but two hours later he was startled by a suspicious silence. “I went over the whole position, I looked at every bunker – there was not a soul. I still don’t know where they are. Zero emotion. Zero. Everything, emptiness,” he says.
The conscript found his phone and unsuccessfully tried to contact his comrades. Soon he heard footsteps and saw the light of flashlights.
“At first I thought our people were coming. I didn’t think so [ukrainiečių kariai] will come to us. I shouted, “Who is this?” Is it yours?” Silence. They told me to leave with my hands up. I lowered the machine gun and left,” he recalled.
Yaroslav said that he was arrested by two Ukrainian soldiers, he did not resist because he “had no experience”. The Russian soldier’s mother told the journalist that she had already watched other interviews with Russian prisoners of war.
“What do you want to hear?” Have you been in my place? In the place of a mother or father whose son is in captivity? I know about the events [Ukrainoje]. And why do you want me to come with a gun and apologize? Or what? What should I do?” she complained.
2024-08-13 08:48:37