POW press conference held in Kyiv

Denys Karlovskyy - Saturday, 5 March 2022, 21:44

A press conference was held in Kyiv with Russian POWs, who called on Russian forces to end the war.

Source: Interfax Ukraine

POWs, Verbatim: "Russians, please do everything possible to end this war. Neither Ukraine nor Russia needs it. Only Putin needs this war.

"Nobody wants to fight in the army. There was no desire to even go to war exercises this far from civilisation... We feel hatred towards the leadership that sent us here. We understand that we were thrown here like kittens for the benefit of the government".

Details: Nine captured Russian invaders spoke at the press conference. Some of them said they did not want to return to Russia and feared for their families.

The POWs reported that Russian military personnel up to the sergeant level were told they were being sent to war exercises near the borders.

Other invaders also called on the Russians to oppose the war against Ukraine. According to one of the prisoners, he saw with his own eyes that the Ukrainians would defend their homeland and fight until the end.

Captive Dmitry Gagarin called on Russians not to believe the propaganda and said that Russian television was lying about "Banderites" and "neo-Nazis", while in fact, Ukrainians are peaceful and trying to defend their land until the very end.

Background: The National Security and Defence Council has launched a website where relatives of Russian prisoners of war can find them based on personal data. On 5 March, Ukrainian defenders managed to capture a Russian pilot who had personally met with self-proclaimed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.