KYIV, Ukraine — With arms nonetheless soiled from the battlefield, a dozen Russian prisoners of struggle sat, stony-faced, in a convention room of a Ukrainian information company on Saturday and described being captured after their armored columns have been ambushed.
Lt. Dmitry Kovalensky, who had fought in a Russian tank unit and spoke on the behest of his Ukrainian captors, stated he lately got here underneath fireplace from an armed drone and shoulder-launched anti-tank missiles on a highway close to Sumy, in northeastern Ukraine. “The entire column burned,” he stated.
Across the identical time and some miles away, at a makeshift Ukrainian navy base in an deserted constructing on the western fringe of Kyiv, Ukrainian troopers ready for a similar form of ambushes that took out Lieutenant Kovalensky’s unit.
Lt. Yevgeny Yarantsev, a Ukrainian officer, stated his nation’s troopers combat otherwise than the Russians. The troops underneath his command manage in small, nimble items that may sneak up on and ambush the lumbering columns of Russian tanks.
“They’ve loads of tanks, we’ve got loads of anti-tank weapons,” stated Lieutenant Yarantsev, who beforehand fought with a volunteer group in opposition to Russia in japanese Ukraine. “Within the open discipline, will probably be even. It’s simpler to combat within the metropolis.”
The 2 younger officers — the identical rank, however every representing a unique nation — gave a number of the few firsthand accounts of the combating which have emerged within the 10-day struggle. The Russian was a prisoner of struggle talking underneath the watchful eye of closely armed Ukrainian safety officers. The Ukrainian spoke as he displayed newly obtained, subtle weapons from the USA.
The accounts of troopers from each side give a small glimpse of how the struggle is being fought round Kyiv within the north. There, relying largely on ambush techniques, Ukrainian forces have slowed the Russian marketing campaign to encircle and seize the capital, whilst Russian troops barrel throughout the south.
Lieutenant Kovalensky and the opposite Russian prisoners have been offered at a information convention supposed to help Ukraine’s declare that it had captured a big variety of Russian troopers. Of their statements, the prisoners blended woodenly phrased condemnations of their very own nation’s management with genuine-sounding particulars of the battle’s early firefights.
In keeping with the foundations governing remedy of prisoners of struggle underneath the Geneva Conventions, governments are supposed to guard a prisoner of struggle from being made right into a “public curiosity,” an idea that’s generally interpreted as not presenting them in any public setting. The Russian troopers regarded exhausted, however confirmed no outward indicators of getting been mistreated.
The prisoners’ feedback and the actual fact of their seize supported descriptions by Western navy analysts and governments of a Russian offensive that has suffered grave setbacks. The Russian military’s superior numbers and gear, nevertheless, might effectively reverse that development.
“Close to the top of the day’s motion on Feb. 27, our column was attacked,” Pvt. Dmitry Gagarin of the Russian military informed the reporters. “My commander burned and died. I bumped into the forest and later surrendered to native individuals.”
Lieutenant Kovalensky stated he discovered Russia would invade Ukraine solely the night earlier than the tank columns started transferring, and that troopers on the rank of sergeant and decrease weren’t informed the place they have been driving till after crossing the border.
All of the prisoners described being captured after their armored columns have been ambushed on roads, accounts that supported Ukraine’s assertions that its navy had made good use of Western-supplied anti-tank weaponry, such because the American-made Javelin missile. However unbiased analysts have additionally described extra mundane issues for the Russian military, together with logistical snarls and an absence of gasoline.
Lieutenant Yarantsev, the Ukrainian officer, instructions what he described as a cellular group of about 500 troopers who’re skirmishing with the Russians on the western method to Kyiv. He stated that their prospects have been bolstered three days in the past once they obtained Barrett 50-caliber sniper rifles in a cargo from the USA.
Smooth and black, with barrels so lengthy they give the impression of being nearly like spears, the rifles have been being unpacked and inspected. One sniper, who declined to supply his identify, stated he had fired one in fight on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Lieutenant Yarantsev stated the troops have been extra snug with the ability to garrison in buildings than in fields or forests. “I’ve seen one thing about struggle,” he stated. “Troopers wish to be someplace the place cellphones work and the place there may be web.”
The constructing the troopers have taken up in, in a leafy residential space of town, was cluttered with ammunition containers. Two hand grenades sat on the ground beside a settee. The troopers had an electrical kettle and provided espresso. In a hallway, a soldier oiled his Kalashnikov.
The combating has been inching nearer to the capital. Ukraine’s protection minister, Oleksii Reznikov, stated in a press release on Saturday that the Russian forces’ major goal is to encircle Kyiv, following the tactic they’ve pursued with smaller cities resembling Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, which is now surrounded, with its warmth and electrical energy lower off.
The combating round Kyiv is usually in Irpin and Bucha, two outlying cities to the northwest, the place situations are grim. A central road in Bucha is now clogged with the burned husks of Russian armored personnel carriers, destroyed in an ambush.
Stanislav Bobrytsky, a pc programmer reached by cellphone in Irpin, stated he had not left his house since Tuesday. “All of the home windows are shaking” from blasts, he stated. “It’s very scary.”
Within the middle of Kyiv, on the information convention with captured Russian troopers, the Ukrainian safety officers current refused to talk. A moderator handed round a microphone, providing reporters a chance to query the prisoners.
Lieutenant Kovalensky stated he was interesting to the Russian individuals to stand up and overthrow President Vladimir V. Putin as a result of the Russian management had deceived the military’s officers in regards to the goals of the struggle and had used the guise of a navy train to organize for an invasion.
The prisoners stated they didn’t know what would occur to them after the information convention. Whereas they stated they have been handled effectively, days after their seize it was unclear if they’d showered or been provided clear garments.
Maria Varenikova contributed reporting from Lviv, Ukraine.
