Russian 'Combat Veteran' Surrenders To Ukraine Army, Says Most Soldiers Are 'Scared'

KEY POINTS

The 'combat veteran' said he did not expect to be deployed into a full-scale military operation
He said his comrades thought the war would be like Russia's previous military operations
Ukraine says more than 39,700 Russian soldiers have now died in the war

A Russian “combat veteran” surrendered to the Ukrainian army and said that many soldiers who joined the war in Ukraine were “scared” and did not expect to be deployed into a full-scale war, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) on Monday published a video showing the interrogation of the Russian veteran after he surrendered to the Ukrainian army. In the video, the veteran, whose identity was not revealed, said he only joined the Russian military to “earn money.” He noted that he did not expect to be deployed into a full-scale military operation.

The Russian veteran also added that most of his comrades who hoped to earn extra money joined the war in Ukraine thinking it would be like previous Russian “special operations.”

"When we got to Popasna [Luhansk Oblast], when we went further, we were shocked... This is a war, let's say, of another generation... That is, the artillery works, but there is no such thing as machine gun fights against another machine gun. I managed to notice during 2 weeks of service: for the most part – you run, you hide from the artillery. A lot of people are scared," the combat veteran said in the video, as translated by Ukrainska Pravda.

The SSU’s interrogation video comes more than five months after Russia launched its war in Ukraine in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” to “demilitarize and de-Nazify” the country.

Since the war began in February, at least 39,700 Russian soldiers have been killed in combat, according to estimates from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. The death toll includes 100 Russian soldiers who were killed over the weekend after the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck a hotel in Luhansk Oblast. It is unclear how many Ukrainian soldiers have died so far in the war.

The high number of military losses has caused many in the Russian army to lose morale, as evidenced by several reports of soldiers fleeing from the battlefield. This has led the Russian army to recruit prisoners with combat experience, citizens of Kyrgyzstan, and residents of Uzbekistan to join the war in Ukraine, a recent investigation found.