A Russian soldier captured by Ukraine said he volunteered for the army in order to defect at the front and join a pro-Ukrainian militia.
The soldier with the call sign Silver spoke in an interview with the project “I want to live”, a program of the Ukrainian secret service for Russian soldiers who want to desert and avoid combat duty.
In the interview published by the project on social media, Silver describes how he enlisted in the Russian armed forces to get to the front, where he planned to defect to the Legion of Freedom of Russia.
The Legion of Freedom of Russia is a pro-Ukrainian paramilitary unit of Russian citizens resisting the invasion. It was founded in 2022 and consists mostly of defectors from the Russian armed forces.
Project “A beautiful time”
The “I Want to Live” project said that Silver was assigned to one of the “suicide units” and that “during his service there he saw enough of all the ‘delights’ of the Russian army: total lawlessness, disregard for human life, lack of training, lack of supplies, sadistic commanders, general transfers for the slightest offense.”
In the interview, the 24-year-old said he hoped to survive Russian President Vladimir Putin: “I was immediately removed from civilian life. It’s strange to say, but now I’m safe in Ukraine. I was born, grew up and worked under Putin. I want to die at least without him.”
Silver also said he tried to avoid direct attacks on Ukrainian troops while still fighting on the Russian side: “We practiced observation and combat drops, and I tried to stay away from drops during combat. Fortunately, I didn’t have a chance to drop bombs on the Ukrainians’ heads.”
Conflict on the front lines in Russia has escalated due to Ukraine’s ongoing Kursk offensive, during which Kyiv launched a cross-border attack on August 6 that caught Russian forces by surprise.
The offensive is the first conquest of Russian territory by foreign troops since World War II. Ukraine claims to have captured more territory in the Kursk region in just a few days than Russia has captured in Ukraine since the beginning of the year.
Newsweek has emailed the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.
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