The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
Soldiers of the 3rd Operational Assignment Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine “Spartan” captured an occupier whose life story could be called caricature-like if it were not true.
An interview with the prisoner was published by the “Spartan” brigade on its YouTube channel.
Twenty-seven-year-old Ivan and his friend Gosha were on a drinking binge, “celebrating” the infidelity of Ivan’s wife. One day, while the intoxicated friends were sleeping on a bench in Ulyanovsk, they were “mobilized”.
That is how they ended up fighting in Ukraine. Gosha was immediately killed by a battalion commander because he refused to share money. Ivan handed over all the cash he had, fled unauthorized absence (AWOL) three times, and was captured and returned to the front line three times.
For his last mission, he went without body armor and weapons (such “luxuries” are not provided for AWOL soldiers in the Russian army). When he saw an FPV drone from the Black Sky battalion of the “Spartan” brigade, he acted unusually — he decided not to run away, but instead used gestures to indicate that he wanted to surrender.
Now Ivan dreams of never returning to Russia, because “in the swamps, once you are ‘meat’, you are ‘meat’ forever” (especially since his wife is now carrying another man’s child for the second time).
