BBC journalists went to a prisoner camp in western Ukraine to speak with soldiers born in this country, but who fought for Russia, trying to find out what made them don the uniform of Putin’s army.
Behind the high walls that guard a prisoner camp in Western Ukraine, there are mainly military recruits from Russia, including from cities such as Saint Petersburg and Ekaterinburg. Among them, however, there are also Ukrainians from territories occupied by Russia, and their stories show how much has changed and how complicated the identity of a generation that grew up under Moscow’s control has become.
Journalists from BBC spoke with several of them to find out how they ended up wearing the Russian uniform. They offered the prisoners the opportunity to refuse the discussion and spoke with those who accepted in places where there were no guards and without cameras.
“I consider myself Russian”
For the authorities in Kiev, the case of Ukrainians captured while fighting for Russia is complicated. They are tried for treason, then end up in war prisoner camps together with Russian soldiers. Officially, Ukraine still considers them its citizens, and the Russian occupation of the regions they come from is viewed as temporary.
Anton was 10 years old when Kremlin-loyal forces took control of the area in Donbas where he lived. Ten years later, in 2022, when Vladimir Putin launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, he had just turned 18 and decided to enlist in the Russian army.
Anton does not see his decision as a betrayal and says that, from his point of view, he is defending his own territory.
“I do not regret my choice. I left to defend my land,” he confesses, telling that his friends also volunteered, but many of them did not return from the front: “Then you get the text messages. Dead, dead, dead”…
Petro Iatsenko, a representative of the Ukrainian coordination center for prisoners of war, says that the reality is a complex one: “They are very pro-Russian, and their national identity is very unclear.”
Anton is one of the clearest examples. For him, the connection with Ukraine is not a sufficient argument to consider himself Ukrainian.
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