Military Captivity and Conditions Report

Come on, grab on, and I'll give it to you slowly.

Come through, come through.

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.

Eight.

Eighty-one.

Eighty-two.

Eighty-three, eighty-four.

Eighty-five.

Eighty-six.

Eighty-eight.

Eighty-nine.

Ninety.

Ninety-one.

Ninety-two.

Ninety-three.

Ninety-four. Count complete.

Fiksa!

Me!

To address me, step out of formation.

Aye, sir.

I, Captain Third Rank Aleksandr

Gennadyevich Manankov, ground forces

rank Major, serviceman of the Third Motorized Rifle

Battalion.

I am addressing our command regarding our surrender.

We surrendered to the Third Army Corps because we did not

want to die in vain.

The Krauts just ran off on us.

They turned off the radio and said, “Take up all-round defense,

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

We had no water at our positions. We had to drink water from puddles.

We had to drink our own urine.

One of us died there, fuck, because of dehydration, fucking hell,

of the body, fuck.

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

grass.

We ate nettles,

meaning we made nettle broth on a burner.

We were starving there, fuck, for a month and a half.

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

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

Three wounded men died because there were no

medications,

and they were not evacuated.

Was there an opportunity to get out?

There was an opportunity to get out,

but they were not allowed to.

Upon surrender, servicemen of the Third Assault

Army Corps provided full and high-quality

assistance to wounded servicemen.

They removed shrapnel from my head, removed shrapnel

from my side. No one, well, I mean, bothered us at all.

I was basically on bed rest.

Our command simply forgot about us.

We were expendable material to them, so the decision was made

to surrender. I want to appeal to the servicemen

of the Russian

Federation. Do not be afraid to surrender.

The propaganda spread among us is nothing but

lies. Here, you are guaranteed food, water,

proper meals and decent detention conditions.

And what they told us, is complete bullshit.

About how prisoners are treated, beaten and castrated.

There's expanding foam and so on, that kind of thing.

As you can see, everything is fine.

And what they're saying there, well, it's not true.

They're normal people, and they understand everything.

Do you agree with me, comrades?

Okay.

Exactly! Okay,

men, relax. Take your seats. Begin.

Exactly.

Exactly.

See how great it is that there are so fucking 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 have awareness, because they've been on both sides:

that side, where they saw the horrors of war caused by their

command, and now

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

They're given everything: help, this and that, the whole nine yards.

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

even further.

This, too, will positively affect our war in its own way.

Ten, follow me.

Two, provide cover.

Get in.

Help your buddy already, fuck, you're the Russian army, we don't leave our own behind.

Get up.