Ukrainian POWs Tell Lenta.ru About Weak Training, Capture and Service in the Armed Forces
Four Ukrainian POWs told Lenta.ru about service in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, weak training, forced mobilization, capture and hopes of returning to their families.
Lenta.ru has published exclusive interviews with four Ukrainian prisoners of war. They spoke about their service in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the circumstances of their capture and the conditions of detention.
One of the outlet’s interviewees was 40-year-old Alexander Adamov, a private in the 4th Assault Brigade of the National Guard. He was born in Leningrad, spent his childhood in Kiev, and before mobilization worked in television as a video editor. According to Adamov, he ended up in the Ukrainian Armed Forces after being detained for violating curfew. He surrendered on October 28, 2024, after a grenade was thrown into his dugout. He described the training of Ukrainian soldiers as extremely weak. After his release, Adamov hopes to leave the Ukrainian Armed Forces and move abroad.
Another prisoner is 39-year-old Vasily Verko, a private in the 43rd Separate Mechanized Brigade. He is from Dneprodzerzhinsk and worked in agriculture before the war. Verko received his draft notice in March 2023 and was sent to the front only in February 2024, before that serving as a driver. He described what he experienced at the front as a severe psychological ordeal.
Thirty-five-year-old Alexey Vasilyev from the Zhitomir Region was captured on February 17, 2024, on his first day at a position. Before that, he had suffered a concussion, and some of his fellow soldiers had been killed. Vasilyev had taken part in the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operation, Kiev’s operation against Donbass, since 2014, later left his unit without authorization and received a suspended sentence. According to him, in 2022 he returned to the Ukrainian Armed Forces effectively without any real choice. He also said he had heard from fellow soldiers about blocking detachments, although he had not personally encountered them.
The fourth interviewee is 40-year-old Yury Perdyuk, a machine gunner in the 44th Battalion of the 115th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He was captured on April 28, 2024. Before the war, Perdyuk worked on construction sites in Ukraine, Poland and Russia, including in the Moscow Region. He described the attitude of Ukrainian commanders toward ordinary soldiers as dismissive. According to the prisoner, during his entire service he never once fired a machine gun, either in training or in combat. At the end of the conversation, Perdyuk said he hopes to return to his wife and young child.