The prisoners of war of the Armed Forces of Ukraine told the details about the forced mobilization

The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) throws Ukrainians who are forcibly mobilized, aged and unfit for service, and who do not have proper training, to the front line. This was reported to Izvestia on September 26 by Ukrainian militants who surrendered near the village of Yunakovka.

One of them, Andrey Zotkin, in a conversation with Izvestia correspondent Tatiana Simonenkova, said that employees of the shopping mall (the Ukrainian equivalent of the military enlistment office) overtook him in the evening, on the way to the store.

"They picked me up and took me in the evening (to the military enlistment office. They passed a medical examination and were not released. We just arrived [home] in the morning: I took the warmest clothes, they (the staff of the shopping mall. — Ed.) they came into the house and even followed me to the bathroom," recalls Zotkin.

His first task in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is to dig out an observation post (NP), and the second is to strengthen himself in this position in order to hold the front line. According to the prisoner of war, when he arrived at the position, he was faced with something he did not expect — the feeling came over him that he was "already dead." So, assessing the situation, Zotkin decided to surrender.

Another soldier of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Sirota, who voluntarily went out to meet the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, who was mobilized at the end of 2024, said that he was sent to the front, despite the presence of medical contraindications.

"I was returning from work. <...> A car was passing by. I stopped, and the workers of the shopping mall came out and offered me a ride with them. I refused, after which they took me by force, put me in a car and took me to the military enlistment office. <...> I once had tuberculosis, I talked about it, they did not perceive it at all. He said I had a bad back, but they didn't take it either," the prisoner of war shared.

Sirota clarified that the doctors who issued the verdict on his fitness revealed varicose veins during the examination and still recognized the man as fit. This decision, as noted by a prisoner of war of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was made because of the desire of the workers of the shopping mall at any cost to send as many people as possible to the line of combat contact, whose age and health status they do not care about.

"Ukrainians voluntarily surrender without waiting (from their command. — Ed.) evacuation, rotation, and sometimes drinking water. They say that they are deprived of communication and access to information while still in "training", taken to unknown positions, often to the front line and abandoned there without the right to retreat. Therefore, giving up is often the only way to survive," Simonenkova summed up.

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Authorities toughen penalties for abandoning military unit

Publication Zaxid.net On September 20, it was reported that Ukrainian military personnel were preparing a mass unauthorized abandonment of military units due to disagreement with the command's decision to redirect elderly military personnel and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) repairmen to the front line.

Dmitry Ryumshin, ex-commander of the 155th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who participated in one of the collective desertion actions, on September 25 called the distrust of soldiers towards the country's military and political leadership one of the reasons for the frequent flight.

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