Lots of videos and photos of captured bloodied Russian soldiers who were being paraded by Ukrainian officials have gone viral on the internet.
Footage posted on the Ukrainian Security Service’s Facebook page over the weekend showed several Russian soldiers who claimed they didn’t know they were being sent to invade.
They insisted that they thought they were only taking part in military exercises before they were forced over their country’s border into Ukraine last week.
https://youtu.be/e74FZsykoug
Other videos included several of the Russians calling their relatives to inform them they had been detained.
A number of the captured Russian soldiers were injured, including some filmed lying in hospital beds as they spoke.
Some of the videos were also posted to the Telegram channel “Find Your Own,” which was set up over the weekend by Ukraine’s interior ministry. One of those videos showed an injured commander of a sniper unit who identified himself as Leonid Paktishev, the Guardian reported.
Paktishev’s shocked relatives told the outlet they didn’t even know he was fighting in Ukraine until they saw the footage of him.
“I was sent the video of my brother captured at 2 a.m. last night,” said his sister, Yelena Polivtseva. “I was completely shocked. I had no idea that he was fighting in there.
“I knew Leonid was in the military, but I had no idea that he was sent to Ukraine,” she said. “I don’t think he would have been aware of it, either.”
Ukraine has been pushing relatives of the captured Russian soldiers to reach out to them and voice opposition to the war.
Moscow on Monday refused to disclose how many Russian soldiers had been killed — or captured — since President Vladimir Putin gave the orders to invade Ukraine.
One of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s advisers said about 3,500 Russian soldiers had been killed or injured so far.
The United Nations said at least 102 civilians had died and hundreds were wounded in the first four days of fighting.
