Prisoners of war are furious with Putin "I sent my unit of 20 soldiers to their deaths"
Russia's army is using underhanded methods to enlist foreigners for the war of aggression against Ukraine. Now those affected tell how they were forced to serve on the front and how they took revenge for it.
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- Unsuspecting foreigners are sent to the front in Ukraine by the Russian army.
- Those who are lucky enough to survive the deployment often end up as prisoners of war in Ukraine. Many of the captured foreigners are unable to return to Russia or their home country.
- Those affected report how they sent their comrades to their deaths out of furious desperation.
They were lured to the front with perfidious tricks and barely survived their deployment in Putin's army: three foreigners recruited by the Kremlin talk to "The Economist" about the dirty methods used to enlist them - and why they are now stuck in a Ukrainian prisoner of war camp for an indefinite period of time.
The men, who do not wish to be named, come from Brazil, Slovakia and Nepal. None of them were at the front in Ukraine voluntarily; they were tricked and threatened. The methods used by the Russian authorities are similar in all three cases.
The statements of the three men are consistent: They were assured that they would not have to perform active frontline duty if they signed a contract with the Russian army. The reporters were unable to independently verify the statements: however, there have been repeated reports of similar cases since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression.
"If you flee, you will be arrested or shot"
The Russian authorities have adapted the specific procedure according to the statements of those affected. The Nepalese man, who claims to have joined the army destitute and desperate after a robbery, was told that he was to be deployed as a medic.
The Slovakian had signed up because he dreamed of living in Siberia: He was supposed to dig trenches and have bunkers: "But that was bullshit: they lied to us." A short time later, the man was at the front and wandered through a minefield after a Ukrainian attack before he was captured.
The man from Brazil, on the other hand, a software specialist, had accepted a job offer in Moscow. He only found out when he was there that the company was working for the military. Now he had to train to fly drones - and was finally sent to the front, accompanied by a threat: "If you try to escape, you will be arrested or shot."
Many prisoners of war have nowhere to go
Stories like those of the three men are not unique. Ukraine does not give specific figures: however, there are probably so many captured foreign fighters in the prisoner of war camps that they are becoming a burden for Kiev, reports "The Economist".
Nobody wants them back. Not Russia anyway, but the authorities in their home countries also show little interest, Vitalii Matvyenko is quoted as saying. The spokesman for the authority responsible for prisoners of war in Kiev added that it had been illegal for most of the men to fight in foreign wars. If they were to return home, they would most likely end up in prison.
The fact that they were forced to fight for Putin's army and were burned out at the front drove many men to despair. One foreign fighter reports that he was so angry that he revealed the locations of 50 Russian positions to the Ukrainian secret service after his capture. "Thanks to me, the Ukrainian forces killed my entire unit of 20 men."
