Captive Russian conscript Anton Savin (b. 2002) said that his company had been told they were going to Ukraine to "carry out a combat mission to seize Kyiv to liberate the population from the Banderites," having confiscated their mobile phones.
"We were not able to desert. It was not possible to leave. The commanders put us in tanks. In the evening, we set off towards the borders of Ukraine. On 24 February, we were already on the territory of Ukraine. We moved around Ukraine for a couple of days, stopping to sleep or refuel. A couple of days later, we ran out of food and those expired field rations. I had one box left in the tank," the soldier said during a prisoner briefing.
He also noted that while they were moving, their equipment broke down.
"Our equipment broke down on the move. There were only six tanks and two armoured personnel carriers of reconnaissance and communications out of the entire battalion, out of 30 tanks," Savin said.
He also said that his commander, Captain Tagiyev, ordered the soldiers to turn around and drive away during the first shelling.
"We did not shoot from tanks, and we did not shoot from assault rifles. When the shelling continued, we abandoned the equipment and ran into the forest on the orders of the same Captain Tagiyev," the conscript said.
He noted that they had walked in the woods for four days until they met Ukrainian servicemen.
According to Savin, Captain Tagiyev dropped his weapon and negotiated with the Ukrainian military to surrender.
"We handed over all our weapons and were taken prisoner in the Sumy region, the city of Romny," he added.
A captive conscript of the Russian Federation army addressed Vladimir Putin with an appeal to stop the war.