KURSK, August 23. /TASS/. Ukrainian prisoners of war taken in the Kursk Region cannot be taken to safer places because of non-stop shelling attacks by the Ukrainian army, Major General Apty Alaudinov, deputy chief of the Russian Armed Forces’ Main Military-Political Department and commander of the Akhmat special forces commando unit, told TASS.

"I would say that taking prisoners is only half the battle, while getting them away from the combat engagement line is a whole other story because the enemy keeps on staging shelling attacks making it impossible for these prisoners to reach a zone where they will be out of danger," he said.

According to Alaudinov, Akhmat fighters have already taken numerous Ukrainian soldiers prisoner. "As of today, we have seven or eight POWs, two of them were wounded - one has a more serious wound. We have sent them to a hospital where they are receiving medical assistance. The rest of the POWs are still onsite. <…> Sometimes it happens that wounded prisoners <…>, as a matter of fact, die by the hands of their own comrades," he said.