Captured Russians Say They Were 'Deceived' into Ukraine Invasion
On a scale from one to worse, a great deal of the news coming out of Ukraine is closer to worse than one.
The bright spots are blinding, however, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky becoming an absolute folk hero in Europe and beyond, as the bravely stays in Kyiv, ready to battle the Russians to his last breath.
But the Kremlin is still menacing his people, turning to terroristic tactics and civilian targets. They’ve even been accused of using weapons that have been banned by international accords and treaties, like horrifying thermobaric “vacuum bombs”.
Perhaps even more tragically, it is now becoming clear that the Russian military tricked these soldiers into invading Ukraine.
Weeping Russian prisoners of war have said they had no idea they were being sent to invade Ukraine and were used like ‘cannon fodder’ by commanders who threw them into battle against ‘peaceful people defending their territory’ after Vladimir Putin’s forces took heavy losses in the opening days of the conflict.
‘This is not our war. Mothers and wives, collect your husbands. There is no need to be here,’ an injured soldier sat in front of a Ukrainian flag was filmed saying. Other footage showed handcuffed Russian prisoner crying, while saying: ‘They don’t even pick up the corpses, there are no funerals’.
Ukraine on Wednesday invited the worried mothers of Russian troops captured on the battlefield to come and collect their sons, in Kyiv’s latest apparent attempt to embarrass Moscow after opening a telephone hotline for Russian parents to find out if their sons are among the dead or captured.
And even worse:
Many Russian troops claimed that they believed they were conducting training exercises in the border regions and did not know they were being sent to invade Ukraine.
There have been unsubstantiated reports of mass desertions among the Russian ranks of late, and the Ukrainian government is offering a cash reward for those who defect.