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Military operation in Ukraine

Russian POWs faced threats of dismemberment in Ukraine, released prisoner says

According to Vyacheslav Starostin, Ukrainian servicemen sought to get information about Russian positions, remaining troops and military equipment, by putting guns to the heads of interrogated prisoners

MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. Ukrainian servicemen beat captured Russian troops and threatened to dismember them, one of the released POWs, Vyacheslav Starostin, said on Friday.

"Naturally, we were beaten during an interrogation in the first location. We were also threatened with dismemberment," he said in an interview with the Zvezda TV channel.

According to him, Ukrainian servicemen sought to get information about Russian positions, remaining troops and military equipment, by putting guns to the heads of interrogated prisoners. "They interrogated us one by one so others remained at a distance and couldn’t hear my answers," Starostin said. "I don’t know what actually happened to the guys, they kept silent until the very end, until we were released," he added. He also said that prisoners had been divided into groups of five and asked to choose who of the five should be killed.

Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov announced on Thursday that 55 troops from the Russian Armed Forces, as well as from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, had been brought to Russia as a result of a prisoner swap with Ukraine.

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Military operation in Ukraine

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