Soldier's Account of Captivity and Conditions

Let's hook on, and I'll let it out slowly.

Move along, move along.

Count off by number.

First.

Second.

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

Sixth.

Twenty-seventh.

Twenty-eight.

Twenty-nine.

Thirty.

Fifty-one.

Fifty-two.

Fifty-three.

Fifty-four.

Seventy-seven.

Seventy-eight.

Seventy-nine.

Eighty.

Eighty-one.

Eighty-two.

Eighty-third, eighty-fourth.

Eighty-five.

Eighty-six.

Eighty-eight.

Eighty-nine.

Ninety.

Ninety-one.

Ninety-two.

Ninety-three.

Ninety-four. Count complete.

Fiksa!

Here!

To address me, step out of formation.

Yes, sir.

I, Captain Third Rank Aleksandr Mamontov

Gennadyevich, my land forces

rank is Major, a serviceman of the Third Rifle

Battalion.

I am appealing to our command regarding our surrender.

We surrendered to the Third Army Corps because we did not

want to die for nothing.

Our officers just ran away.

They turned off the radio and said, “Set up a perimeter defense,

hold out.” That was it. The radio was off.

We had no water at our positions, so we had to drink water from

puddles. We had to drink our own urine.

One of us died there, fuck, from dehydration of the body, for fuck’s sake.

We had no food, so we had to eat tree bark and

We had no food, so we had to eat tree bark and

grass.

We ate nettles,

meaning we made nettles on a burner with a little broth.

We starved, sitting there for a fucking month and a half.

This is the first time I’ve eaten properly, I mean, in captivity.

We had no medicine to provide aid to our wounded soldiers.

Three wounded men died because there were no

medicines,

they weren't evacuated.

Was there a chance to get out?

There was,

but they weren't allowed to.

Upon surrendering, soldiers of the Third Assault

Army Corps provided full and proper care

to wounded servicemen.

They removed a piece of shrapnel from my head, removed a piece of shrapnel

from my side. Nobody, well, I mean, forced me to do anything at all.

It was bed rest, basically.

Our command simply forgot about us.

We were expendable to them, so it was decided

to surrender. I want to appeal to the servicemen

of the Russian

Federation. Don't be afraid to surrender.

The propaganda being spread among us is nothing but

pure lies. Here, you are guaranteed food, water,

adequate meals and decent conditions of detention.

And what we were told is complete bullshit.

About how prisoners are treated, how they're beaten and castrated.

About construction foam and so on, and things like that.

As you can see, everything's fine.

And what they tell them there is untrue, they're

normal people and understand everything.

Do you agree with me, comrades?

Yes, sir!

All right, men, relax. Take your seats. Carry on.

Yes, sir.

See how fucking great it is that there are so many of them. That's very good.

First and foremost, they'll make a good pool for prisoner exchanges.

You know what I like most?

That now they're aware, because they've been on both sides:

on the side where they saw the horrors of war caused by their

command, and now

here, they've seen that they're treated as they should be.

They're provided with everything: help, this, that, and the other.

That's it. And now they'll push this information to the masses

even further.

This, too, will have a positive effect on our war in its own way.

So, aren't we friends? Ten, follow me.

мной.

Two, provide cover.

Get in.

Help with Hentu, for fuck's sake, you're the Russian army, we don't abandon our own.

Get up.