From the start, no one expected that Russia would actually launch a military aggression against Ukraine. The full-scale and relentless assault of Vladimir Putin's forces seemed to invalidate his statement long weeks ago that Russia would not attack any country unless it was attacked first.
Within days, Russian missiles hit the capital Kiev, Kharkiv, and a number of other cities. A massive military convoy entered Ukrainian territory along with hundreds of armed Russian soldiers. Although the Russian army seemed much more prepared than the Ukrainians, it turned out that there was a dark secret that was leaked by the United Nations (UN) ambassador from Ukraine that some of the Russian soldiers were being lied to by their commanders.
Curious about their confession? Check out the following explanation!
A few days after the outbreak of tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a rumor circulated that many Russian soldiers were actually amateurs and were being lied to by their superiors. Several video testimonials circulated showing Russian soldiers surrendering and claiming not to want to be involved in war. They didn't show any resistance at all and told their respective chronology.
The commander-in-chief of Ukraine, Valeriy Zalushnyi, said that a reconnaissance unit of Russia's 74th Motorized Rifle Brigade had been taken captive in the northern city of Chernihiv. The platoon commander named Konstantin Buynichev admitted that he believed his platoon was only tasked with collecting data and would return home. Hence no one knew that they were tasked with actually attacking and killing in Ukraine. This testimony was uploaded by Panglima Zalushnyi on his personal Facebook account.
Another line of confessions was revealed by the Youtube channel UATV English. At least five Russian soldiers said they did not know what they were sent to Ukraine for.
“We were just told to go there, we were told to line up when we started crossing the border. I asked the commander, why are we doing this? But I was asked to be quiet,” said one of them.
The five soldiers admitted that they were surprised when there was a shootout between Russian troops and Ukrainian troops. But they decided not to shoot back, lay down and put down their weapons until they were caught.
On the other hand, Ukraine's UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya showed a screenshot of a conversation a Russian soldier had with his mother via text message. In a special emergency session of the UN General Assembly, Sergiy read out the contents of their conversation.
The soldier, who has not been identified, said he was afraid because he had to be on the side of Russia to invade Ukraine. He confessed to his mother that he was no longer in training in Crimea. At first the officials said that the Ukrainian people would warmly welcome him. But in fact their vehicle was ridden and not allowed to pass. They were called fascists, and it was very hard for him to see how the Russian army itself actually attacked Ukrainians and even civilians.
According to the MSN website, so far Zelensky claims that as many as 10,000 Russian soldiers were killed as a result of defensive attacks by the Ukrainian army. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that at least 2 million Ukrainians have decided to flee to other countries.