MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. The Ukrainian troops taken prisoner in Gorskoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic said they were left without communications, food and drinking water before they surrendered.
"They [the Ukrainian military command] left us without communications. We could not get in touch either with the battalion or with the brigade. The radios were out. We did not know where to take up positions and what our task was. We were totally cut off: there was no food, no water, no communications," a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war said in a video released by Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday.
Other Ukrainian POWs said there was no other way out but to lay down their arms. "We were in full view, without seeing the enemy. Had we not laid down the arms, we would have in fact perished without a fight. A decision was made to capitulate in order to keep the personnel alive," another Ukrainian captive said. He added that the Ukrainian servicemen were immediately fed after their surrender, receiving drinking water and food.
Other Ukrainian POWs said they had been thrown into battle without any proper training. They were given the opportunity to fire 11 rounds from an assault rifle twice. "We had no more training," one of them stressed.
As Russia’s Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported earlier on Friday, Russia’s troops encircled several Ukrainian military units, a Nazi formation and a group of foreign mercenaries around the communities of Gorskoye and Zolotoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic.
The encircled Ukrainian battlegroup numbering about 2,000 troops is less than 40% manned and its supply has been completely frozen. In the past 24 hours, 41 Ukrainian servicemen gave up armed resistance in that area and surrendered, the general said.