30-min press conference given by captured Russian soldiers.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text:


Beau of The Fifth Column
@BeauTFC
·
Mar 5, 2022
Just watched a 30-min press conference given by captured Russian soldiers. If they were coached, it's the best coaching I've ever seen.

Not sharing the video, because A) I haven't found a translated one yet (looking now) and B) if this isn't voluntary, it's a war crime.

Beau of The Fifth Column
@BeauTFC
Overall, it's basically confirming a lot of what we suspected.
9:12 PM · Mar 5, 2022

[Emrys]

1. Intro to the video on YouTube:

Ostap Kostyuk

Russian soldiers, who came to Ukraine from the territory of Belarus, confess that participated in the military drills since summer 2021.

They were constantly brainwashed that Ukraine was seized by ‘Nazi junta’ and needs ‘liberation.’ They believed, this time, they were participating some ordinary military exercises.

Banality of Evil!

Were they ready to kill the civilians? Did they know everything in advance? Why didn’t they disobey their commanders?

[Sogo]

2. I feel so much sympathy for the Russian people who

are continuously lied to. Apparently, so are their military lied to.

Very sad....

[BeyondGeography]

3. The lieutenant colonel is amazing

I lost count of the number of profound things he said. His grasp of the utter futility of this enterprise and its tragic dimensions is complete.

Ukrainians have been incredibly disciplined and far-sighted in their treatment of the Russians. This must be coming from the top, but even if it is, it’s a tribute to the people of Ukraine. The descent into madness is still possible, even likely, but Ukrainians would do well to do their best to follow the advice of this captured Russian colonel. The more soldiers who can return alive to Russia to tell the truth about this disgraceful invasion the better.

[msongs]

4. unlikely captured and released russians will get any chances to tell anything nt

[BeyondGeography]

5. Meaningless and mindless post nt

[Wingus Dingus]

6. These aren't soldiers, these are Russian police sent to

control riots after the fall of Kyiv. Remarkable interviews. Perhaps because they are police and not armed forces they feel more free to speak--they've never had an expectation of leaving Russia, and thus don't get the POW training soldiers get. I don't know. A US servicemember speaking like this after capture would be in deep, deep trouble. I imagine it will be even worse for them.

[Nevilledog]

7. They were acting as soldiers.

That would be like saying the Ukrainian bakers and students and regular people aren't soldiers.


They may have been led to this position by lies, but they were there and are soldiers.

[Wingus Dingus]

9. I guess I'm drawing a distinction because the old guy (5 years younger than me, lol)

said he did not believe they had jurisdiction/legality as police officers in a foreign country--but they were going to be used as riot control, cracking down on insurgency by the civilians. This is very telling, about Russia's plans, that they sent in the riot police fairly quickly, before Kyiv was even close to being subdued. Russia must have been certain that Kyiv would fall very quickly, that they got police in there so quickly. Interesting. Also, again, they don't seem to know how to act in a POW situation, they were not prepared to be in a foreign country--Russia sent them in unprepared and with no training on how to conduct themselves once in Kyiv. This is such INSANELY shitty planning--such a recipe for desertion, or war crimes, or getting their men killed or captured.

[elleng]

8. 2+ major nations 'largely' taken over by lying regimes/victims of such,

to which the world is subject!

[AntiFascist]

10. It would be great if this could somehow go viral within Russia...

the police and/or military need to rise up against Putin.

[Nevilledog]

12. That's impossible now.

[Nevilledog]

11. Kick