- Ukraine claims that dozens of Russian soldiers have surrendered in Vovchansk in recent weeks.
- A video released by Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade appears to show Russian prisoners.
- Russian troops reported heavy losses, poor conditions and a lack of support from senior officers.
According to reports, Russian soldiers surrendered to Ukraine’s elite combat brigade in the northern town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv Oblast.
A video released by Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade on Wednesday showed Russian soldiers emerging from trenches with their hands raised above their heads or tied behind their backs.
The video appeared to confirm recent reports that dozens of Russian soldiers had surrendered around Vovchansk, where heavy fighting has been ongoing since Moscow launched a cross-border offensive on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, last month.
The prisoners were then photographed and interviewed while sitting in what appeared to be a school classroom.
Business Insider was not able to independently verify the video.
Some of the captured soldiers said they had been forced to join the Russian army due to financial or legal troubles, and some had only received a week of training before being sent to the front.
Food and water were limited, and often they had to buy supplies with their own money.
Almost all of the prisoners said their troops had suffered heavy losses in attacks on Ukrainian positions.
“We received orders to attack positions inside a chemical plant. I don’t know how many there were, but I think it was around 70. We went there by car at night,” one of the prisoners said.
“A drone came out of nowhere and killed almost everyone. Most of us were hit. Only seven of us survived, wounded and taken prisoner,” he said.
Another soldier said he was the “only survivor” of his unit but was taken prisoner.
Many were frustrated with the leadership of officers who did not take part in the costly attack.
The video appears to confirm heavy losses and surrenders of Russian troops in the region, revealing that Russian attempts to open a second front in northern Ukraine have stalled.
Last week Nazar Voloshin, a spokesman for the Khortytsiya Regional Command, which is responsible for ground operations in the region, claimed that “nearly 60 Russians” had been taken prisoner in one day of fighting.
Voloshin said Vovchansk, three miles from the Russian border, is 70 percent under Ukrainian control.
An earlier video released by Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade on June 6 appeared to show the capture of two wounded Russian soldiers during a Ukrainian counterattack in Vovchansk.
In February, some 30,000 Russian troops began advancing across Ukraine’s northern border into the Kharkiv region, opening a new front in Ukraine’s already stretched defenses.
But four weeks later, Russian forces have stalled, and White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby He declared the attack “almost over.”
Institute for War Studies Said Putin may have rushed to launch an offensive before Western help arrived, deploying an “understrength” military in the process.
Anne Marie Daly, a geopolitical strategist at the RAND Corporation, previously told BI that Putin likely did not have the means to capture the city of Kharkiv, but wanted to create a buffer zone to protect the border region of Belgorod from Ukrainian attacks.
Still, Daly told BI, “I think we’ll start to see more widespread attacks from Russia later this summer.”
