烏克蘭入侵期間，俄羅斯應徵入伍者講述了成群結隊的投降經歷 (2/2)

Recently The New York Times reported the following:

During Ukraine’s Incursion, Russian Conscripts Recount Surrendering in Droves (2/2)

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

Reporting from Sumy, Ukraine

Aug. 17, 2024

Updated 10:01 a.m. ET

(continue)

The prison provided access for several media outlets, including The Times, whose journalists identified themselves, and asked permission for interviews and to take photographs. The detainees were interviewed after being captured, and in the presence of guards, so their accounts could not be independently verified. The guards did not intervene, and were some distance from the prisoners during the conversations.

The prisoners described being stationed at platoon strength, about 30 men, in concrete or earthwork fortifications spaced a mile or so apart along the border. There, they had faced a sudden, ferocious attack and quickly gave up the fight.

Ukrainian soldiers, independent military analysts and Russian military bloggers have also reported a quick rout along the border.

Pvt. Igor, a slender 21-year-old who was drafted in December, said Ukrainian artillery fire had picked up a few days before the incursion. “We reported to commanders, but they didn’t react,” he said. “They said, ‘Well, there’s nothing we can do about it.’”

On the day of the attack, bombarded by artillery, he tried to hunker down in the fortification, but it caught fire.

He and others ran for a nearby forest, he said. From his group of 12 who had tried to dash to safety, five survived, he said.

The position had only one recoilless rifle, he said, and it could not shoot at Ukraine’s American-provided Bradley infantry fighting vehicles as they attacked because it was pointed in the wrong direction.

Pvt. Sergei 20, from the region of Tatarstan in the Volga River valley, said his platoon leader had led the 28 soldiers from his fort on a chaotic retreat. They holed up in a village house, but Ukrainian soldiers found them. All surrendered.

The platoon leader, he said, had yelled out a window: “‘There are conscripts here. We want to surrender.’”

Some lamented being sent with inadequate training to a battlefield that has evolved into a complex mixture of exploding drones, electronic jamming and the use of finely honed tactics for storming trenches and fortifications.

Pvt. Dmitry 21, from the Komi region in northern Russia, said that when their radios stopped working on the day of the attack, he assumed it was because of Ukrainian jamming. Without orders, the soldiers realized they were overmatched and tried to retreat, but were captured. “They said we might see a sabotage group, maybe 10 guys, not an army,” he said.

While the Ukrainian forces took full advantage of the element of surprise and what both sides described as a weak and disoriented Russian defense, the Ukrainian advance has bogged down away from the border against better prepared Russian forces.

Conscripts are still being caught, however. This past week, the Ukrainian news media published a video said to show more than 100 conscripts lying face down in a field, reportedly filmed by the S.B.U., Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency. The videos could not be independently verified.

For Mr. Zelensky, the influx of prisoners of war eases what had become a simmering domestic problem. The distraught families of Ukrainian soldiers held in Russia have staged weekly protests in Kyiv, the capital, to draw attention to their detained loved ones. Russia does not disclose the numbers of Ukrainians it has captured, but was assumed, before the incursion, to have more Ukrainians than Ukraine had Russians.

The haul of new prisoners has cheered these families.

Tetyana Vyshnyak, whose son served with the Azov regiment, was captured and sentenced to 22 years in a Russian prison. There had been little hope of his release, given Russia’s advantage in the number of prisoners of war.

“For all of us, this is a great chance and hope that our loved ones will be exchanged,” Ms. Vyshnyak said in an interview.

Valeria Subotina, a former press officer with the Azov regiment, spent 11 months in Russian captivity before an exchange in 2023. “It’s incredibly difficult to go on living when your friends and loved ones are in captivity,” she said. “I hope the operation in the Kursk region can change this.”

 (Yurii Shyvala contributed reporting from Sumy, and Stas Kozljuk from Kyiv, Ukraine)

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」。

（繼續）

監獄為包括《泰晤士報》在內的多家媒體提供了訪問通道，其記者表明了自己的身份，並要求允許進行採訪和拍照。被拘留者被抓獲後在警衛在場的情況下接受了採訪，因此他們的說法無法獨立核實。獄警沒有介入，在採訪談話時與囚犯保持一定距離。

囚犯們描述說，他們以排的兵力駐紮在邊境沿線相距一英里左右的混凝土或泥土防禦工事中，大約有 30 人。在那裡，他們遭遇了突然而兇猛的攻擊，很快就放棄了戰鬥。

烏克蘭士兵、獨立軍事分析家和俄羅斯軍事部落格也報告了邊境地區的快速潰敗。

列兵Igor是一位瘦身材的 21 歲年輕人，去年 12 月應徵入伍，他說烏克蘭的砲火在入侵前幾天有所加強。 他說:「我們向指揮官報告，但他們沒有反應」; 「他們說:  『是嗎，我們對此無能為力』」。

攻擊當天，在砲火的轟擊下，他試圖躲進防禦工事，但防禦工事著火了。

他說，他和其他人跑向附近的森林。他說，他的 12 人小組試圖衝向安全地帶，其中 5 人生存下來。

他說，這個陣地只有一支無後座力步槍，在攻擊烏克蘭的美國提供的布拉德利步兵戰車時無法射擊，因為它指向了錯誤的方向。

20歲列兵Sergei來自伏爾加河谷韃靼斯坦地區說，他的排長在混亂撤退中帶領28名士兵從堡壘中撤退。他們躲在一間村屋裡，但烏克蘭士兵發現了他們。全部投降了。

他說，排長向窗外喊道：「『這裡有應徵入伍的士兵。我們想投降』」。

有些人感嘆，在訓練不足的情況下被派往戰場，而戰場已演變成爆炸無人機、電子干擾, 以及使用精心磨練地去攻克戰壕和防禦工事的戰術的複雜混合體。

21歲列兵Dmitry來自俄羅斯北部科米地區表示，襲擊當天他們的無線電停止運作，他認為這是因為烏克蘭的干擾。沒有命令，士兵們意識到自己處於劣勢，試圖撤退，但被俘虜了。 他說:「他們說我們可能會看到一個破壞小組，可能有 10 個人，而不是一支軍隊」。

雖然烏克蘭軍隊充分利用了出其不意的優勢, 以及雙方所描述的俄羅斯薄弱且迷失方向的防禦，但烏克蘭軍隊在遠離邊境的進攻, 陷入了面對有更好準備的俄羅斯軍隊的困境。

然而，應徵入伍的士兵仍然被抓。上週，烏克蘭新聞媒體發布了一段視頻，據稱顯示 100 多名應徵入伍者臉朝下躺在田野裡，據報道是由烏克蘭國內情報機構 S.B.U. 拍攝的。這些影片無法得到獨立驗證。

對澤連斯基來說，戰俘的湧入緩解了國內日益嚴重的問題。被俄羅斯關押的烏克蘭士兵的家屬心煩意亂，每週在首都基輔舉行抗議活動，以引起人們對被拘留親人的關注。俄羅斯並未透露其俘虜的烏克蘭人數量，但據推測，在邊境進攻之前，俄羅斯抓獲的烏克蘭人數量比烏克蘭抓獲的俄羅斯人還要多。

新戰俘的到來讓這些家庭感到高興。

Tetyana Vyshnyak 的兒子在Azov團服役，被捕並在俄羅斯監獄被判處 22 年徒刑。鑑於俄羅斯在戰俘數量上的優勢，他獲釋的希望渺茫。

Vyshnyak女士在接受採訪時說「對我們所有人來說，這是一個很好的機會，希望我們的親人能夠得到交換」。

Valeria Subotina 是Azov團的前新聞官，在2023 年進行交換之前，她在俄羅斯被囚禁了11 個月。她說: 「當你的朋友和親人被囚禁時, 繼續生活是非常困難的」; 「我希望在庫爾斯克地區的邊境行動能夠改變這一點」。

So, the recent fighting started by Ukraine on the 8^th August in the Kursk region 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. Probably this operation will force Putin to rethink his position on the war.