A young man from an occupied village told how the Russians forced him to fight against Ukraine.

One of the residents of Mykhailivka in the Zaporizhzhia region, who is currently in captivity of Russian occupiers, surrendered to the soldiers of the 95th Airborne Brigade. This was reported by the paratroopers in a video recording.

21-year-old captive Ivan admitted that after getting drunk, he stole a bicycle, and the next day he was detained. He had to choose between sitting in prison and participating in a military operation, and he chose to fight. He told representatives of the military counterintelligence of the SBU that his father advised him to stay home.

“The lawyer said: ‘Either sit or fight.’ I chose to fight. My father told me it would be better if I sat...,” said the captive.

Ivan noted that after training, where he was beaten for using the Ukrainian language, he was sent to Kursk. There he was sent to the front line with other Russian soldiers without helmets and bulletproof vests.

According to the captive, the Russians and Koreans do not communicate with each other. When they were waiting for reinforcements from the Koreans, the known data were not understood by the Koreans, and they began to shoot. As a result, many Russian soldiers were shot by their own.

The captive said that at the first opportunity, the Russians forced him to shoot a Ukrainian soldier they had captured during the battle.

The military counterintelligence of the SBU documented these crimes. For suspected crimes against civilians and prisoners of war that violated the laws of war, orders were given to kill and treat prisoners cruelly, responsible for these actions.

The Main Investigative Department of the SBU has gathered evidence confirming this criminal activity. 

These actions may be classified under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for imprisonment for a term of 10 to 15 years or life imprisonment. Earlier, information was reported about a captive Ukrainian and an Italian citizen who volunteered on the side of the Russians.

A sentence has also been handed down to a fighter of Korean descent, Lee Won Chol, who displayed the Russian flag during the occupation of the Luhansk regional administration in 2014. He was captured by Ukrainian military in 2024. This was reported by the Luhansk regional prosecutor's office.