Our reporter Nikola Delesal gathered the testimony of a Russian soldier who was wounded in the legs and taken to a Ukrainian military hospital. Here it is in full size.
“My name is Arkady. I’m 21. I’m from the Dutch Corps 38846. I’m a driver. We arrived in Belarus in Rechnitsa. On the evening of February 23, we were told to follow the columns without being told that we were going to Ukraine. We knew we were in Ukraine when we saw the Chernobyl sign. We asked the commander: “What are we doing in Ukraine? We need to follow in our footsteps. He replied that there was no going back because we were surrounded. It would take only 5-6 hours to return to Belarus … Then we wanted to escape, we were very afraid, we are not soldiers, we are drivers and our contract does not say that we have to kill and shoot.
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We spent one night in Sobachi, then another night and in a small village without a sign we came under fire and I fainted. We have been deceived. We didn’t even know we were going to have to fight. They just told us to follow the convoy. War, no one wants it. You shouldn’t do that, it’s very scary. We could not desert. We tried to talk to the commander, but it didn’t work. There were ten cars, I was the last, I don’t know what happened to the others.
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