Recently The New York Times reported the following:
During Ukraine’s Incursion, Russian Conscripts Recount
Surrendering in Droves (1/2)
More than 300 have been processed in a prison in Ukraine,
providing the country with a much-needed “exchange fund” for future swaps of
prisoners of war.
By Andrew E. Kramer Photographs by David Guttenfelder
The New York Times Reporting from Sumy, Ukraine
Aug. 17, 2024
Updated 10:01 a.m. ET
They were lanky and fresh-faced, and the battle they lost
had been their first.
Packed into Ukrainian prison cells, dozens of captured
Russian conscripts lay on cots or sat on wooden benches, wearing flip-flops
and, in one instance, watching cartoons on a television provided by the warden.
In interviews, they recalled abandoning their positions or surrendering as they found themselves facing well-equipped, battle-hardened Ukrainian forces streaming across their border.
“We ran into a birch grove and hid,” said Pvt. Vasily, whose small border fort was overrun on Aug. 6 — at the outset of a Ukrainian incursion into Russia that was the first significant foreign attack on the country since World War II. The New York Times is identifying the prisoners by only their first names and ranks for their safety if they are returned to Russia in a prisoner exchange.
The fighting marked a significant shift in the war, with Ukrainian armored columns rumbling into Russia two and a half years after Russia had launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Russia’s border, it turned out, was defended thinly, largely by young conscripted soldiers who in interviews described surrendering or abandoning their positions. Private Vasily said he had survived by lying in the birch forest near the Russian border for three days, covered in branches and leaves, before deciding to surrender.
“I never thought it would happen,” he said of the Ukrainian attack.
The Russian military command had, by all signs, made the same assumption, manning its border defenses with green conscripts, some drafted only months earlier. Their defeat and descriptions of surrendering in large numbers could increase Ukraine’s leverage in possible settlement talks and lead to prisoner exchanges.
It could also resonate inside Russia. The losses of young, drafted Russian soldiers during wars in Afghanistan and Chechnya stirred widespread discontent at home.
For the bloody trench fighting inside Ukraine, the Russian Army deploys older soldiers mobilized from their civilian jobs, volunteers and prisoners, who agree to a tour of duty in exchange for their freedom, should they survive. Conscripts are barred by law from being deployed outside Russia. But stretched for manpower, or blind to the risk, the military used them to guard the border.
In Russia, conscripts represent the bottom rung in a two-tiered military that took shape in the post-Soviet period. They are drafted after high school and typically serve a year performing menial tasks, like shoveling the snow at bases deep in Russia. Contract soldiers are volunteers, better paid, and they bear the brunt of wars in Syria and Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials say they have captured hundreds of young conscripts over the past week and a half, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised as a move replenishing Ukraine’s “exchange fund” for the swapping of prisoners.
The Ukrainian prison in Sumy, where the conscripts interviewed on Friday were held, has processed 320 prisoners of war so far, 80 percent of them conscripts, according to the prison warden, who asked not to be identified by name for security reasons; the numbers could not be independently verified. After processing, prisoners are sent west, farther from the fighting.
On Friday, the prison held 71 prisoners of war, packed into basement cells, where they are safeguarded from potential airstrikes, the Ukrainian military says.
They wore hand-me-down track suits, T-shirts and shorts that their captors had provided. Some had shrapnel or gunshot wounds. Wide-eyed, and appearing to be disoriented, they watched as guards escorted journalists into the cells for interviews.
(to be continued)
Translation
烏克蘭一所監獄已處理了 300 多個戰俘，為該國未來交換戰俘提供了急需的「交換儲備」。
他們身材瘦長，面色蒼白，這是他們第一次輸掉的戰鬥。
數十名被俘虜的俄羅斯新兵被關進烏克蘭監獄的牢房，他們躺在小床上或坐在木凳上，穿著人字拖，有一個時刻正在看監獄長提供的電視上的動畫。
在訪談中，他們回憶起放棄陣地或投降的情景，因為他們發現自己面對的是裝備精良、久經沙場的烏克蘭軍隊，他們源源不斷地越過邊境。
列兵Vasily說:「我們跑進了一片白樺林並躲了起來」, 他的邊境小堡壘於 8 月 6 日被佔領，當時烏克蘭開始入侵俄羅斯，這是自二戰以來外國對俄羅斯的首次重大攻擊。為了確保囚犯在交換戰俘時返回俄羅斯的安全，《紐約時報》僅透過名字和軍階來識別囚犯的身份。
這場戰鬥標誌著戰爭的重大轉變，在俄羅斯全面入侵烏克蘭兩年半後，烏克蘭裝甲縱隊隆隆地進入俄羅斯。
事實證明，俄羅斯邊境的防守薄弱，主要由年輕的應徵士兵組成，他們在接受採訪時說出投降或放棄陣地的事。列兵Vasily說，他在俄羅斯邊境附近的白樺林裡躺了三天，身上覆蓋樹枝和樹葉，之後才決定投降。
他談到烏克蘭襲擊事件時說道:「我從沒想過這種事會發生」。
從種種跡象來看，俄羅斯軍事指揮部也做出了同樣的假設，用新兵來保衛邊境，其中一些是幾個月前才徵召入伍的。他們的失敗和大量投降的描述, 可以增加烏克蘭在可能的和解談判中的影響力，並導致戰俘交換。
它也可能在俄羅斯內部引起共鳴。在阿富汗和車臣戰爭中，年輕的應徵入伍的俄羅斯士兵的犧牲激起了國內的廣泛不滿。
俄羅斯軍隊為了應對烏克蘭境內血腥的戰壕戰爭，部署了較年長士兵, 都是從民事工作、志願者和囚犯中動員起來的，囚犯同意服役一次以換取自由，如果他們仍生存的話。法律禁止應徵入伍者被部署到俄羅斯境外。但由於人力不足，或對風險視而不見，軍方用他們來守護邊境。
在俄羅斯，應徵入伍者兵代表後蘇聯時期形成的兩級軍隊中的最底層。他們高中畢業後應徵入伍，通常服役一年，從事一些卑微的工作，例如在俄羅斯深處的基地鏟雪。合約兵是志願者，薪水更高，他們在敘利亞和烏克蘭的戰爭中首當其衝。
烏克蘭官員表示，他們在過去一周半的時間裡抓獲了數百名年輕應徵入伍者，總統澤連斯基稱讚此舉補充了烏克蘭用於交換戰俘的「交換儲備」。
烏克蘭Sumy監獄目前關押著週五接受採訪的應徵入伍者，出於安全原因要求不透露姓名的監獄長表示，該監獄迄今已收押了 320 名戰俘，其中 80% 是應徵入伍者。這些數字無法獨立核實。經過處理後，囚犯被送往西部，遠離戰鬥的地方。
烏克蘭軍方表示，週五，該監獄關押著 71 名戰俘，他們被關在地下室牢房中，以保護他們免受潛在的空襲。
他們穿著抓獲他們的人所提供的舊運動服、T
恤和短褲。有些人有彈片或槍傷。他們睜大眼睛，似乎迷失了方向，看著警衛護送記者進入牢房去進行採訪。
（待續）
Note:
1. Private
(列兵) is a soldier
of the lowest rank in an army.
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