We are like hamsters in a maze: a captured occupier told how he surrendered to a drone
On 9 May, 30-year-old Russian Ruslan Anitin surrendered to a Ukrainian drone. Then two of his seriously wounded comrades committed suicide.
The command did not get in touch, and a Ukrainian drone with ammunition hovered overhead again. Anitin threw his assault rifle aside and raised his crossed arms up, asking not to be killed. And the quadcopter flew away.
I did not bother
Ruslan Anitin is from the village of Idritsa in the Pskov region, which is actually on the Russian-Latvian border. Despite the fact that Russia has the world’s largest gas deposits, the village is not gasified.
Idrytsya is home to about 5,000 people, and its main employer is a prison colony. Anitin worked there as a guard. Before mobilization, he quit and worked in a shop for a while.
– I got a call saying that I had to come to the village administration and sign a summons. In case of refusal, I faced criminal liability, – said the captured Russian soldier.
It was September 2022. The whole world had already seen the atrocities of the Russian military in Irpin and Bucha, the bombed-out drama theatre in Mariupol, torture chambers in the liberated Kharkiv region, and the mass grave in Izium. Then the Russian army killed 380 Ukrainian children and deported tens of thousands of young Ukrainians – later the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe would recognize this as genocide, and the International Criminal Court would issue an arrest warrant for Russian dictator Putin.
Anitin, a Russian, says that neither he nor his friends thought about the war that his country had unleashed.
– I didn’t really bother with this topic, so, in a general way, we watched what the federal channels showed. They gave a summary of the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces – nothing more. We did not understand why this was happening and what goals we wanted to achieve. I was neutral about it because I thought it would not affect me in any way, – says the captive.
Captured Russian serviceman Ruslan Anitin
Anitin considers himself a “simple Russian” who does not decide anything. He heard that he could pay off the summons, but he had no money and no connections, so he signed the summons and arrived at the mobilization point in the morning. They promised to pay 200 thousand Russian rubles and not to send him to the front line. I had a 4-year-old daughter and wife at home and promised to return home soon.
– We were sent to Tver, among those mobilized were shop assistants, factory workers, miners, tractor drivers, and even retired internal affairs officers – ordinary people, so to speak. The training was minimal – we recall the young soldier’s course, the handling of small arms, the use of a Kalashnikov rifle, and only two trips to the training ground. The rest of the points were in theory or brochures,” Anitin said.
We are like hamsters in a maze
First, he was sent to the Luhansk region – they dug trenches and dugouts near Troitske, Anitin says. “In January, they were thrown near Svatove. And in May 2023 – near Bakhmut. The first thing that shocked us was that the Wagnerites took command of them.
– We did not understand why the leadership was transferred to Wagner’s group, but we certainly did not hear an answer to the question. We were told: “Follow the order,” and if we didn’t, we would be “zeroed out”.
– Who said that?
– Wagner’s soldier. Failure to comply with the order or retreat from the position would result in execution,” says Anitin.
On the night of 8-9 May, one of the Wagner soldiers took Anitin and two other mobilized men to their positions, ordered them to kill Ukrainian soldiers in case of a breakthrough, and to hold out for a week. He himself retreated. On the day that Russian dictator Putin celebrated his victory on Red Square in Moscow, Anitin and other mobilized men like him were darting around the trench, trying to dodge the ammunition that was being dropped on them by Ukrainian army drones. The trench was littered with bodies.
– As for the ammunition, we were told to take a couple of magazines, and everything else would be there. As I later found out, there was more than enough of it – the entire trench was littered with weapons – assault rifles, grenades, mines, whatever. There were a lot of bodies – not necessarily whole ones. You wouldn’t see that in the worst horror films. According to their uniforms, they were Wagnerites, they were dressed in cartoon colors,” the prisoner said.
They were pursued by reconnaissance drones, covered by a mortar, and a quadcopter dropped ammunition. Anitin quickly realized they were being left to their doom. He tried to contact the command to ask for help, and evacuation – two of his comrades were wounded, but the radio was silent, and it became clear that no one would come for them.
– At some point, I imagined that we were like hamsters in a maze – running back and forth, and ammunition was being thrown at us. We tried to get in touch with our people, with our platoon, to call for some help, evacuation, because there were no evacuation points. But no one got in touch, we tried, but the radio station was silent, – he says.
One of the mobilized men committed suicide in front of Anitin – because of his injuries, he could not move, he lost hope of being saved, and put a grenade under his head, which exploded. This was recorded by a quadcopter, and the second wounded man can also be seen committing suicide by putting an assault rifle to his head and shooting.
A quadcopter with ammunition hovered over Anitin, and he realized that his only chance of survival was to surrender, so he threw his assault rifle aside and raised his hands.
– He flew a little to the side. To check if it worked, I came out of hiding, I wanted to test my theory, and yes, the copter did not drop anything, – the captured Russian recalls.
Surrender and follow the copter
At that time, in the Bakhmut direction, near the road to Chasiv Yar 92, a separate mechanized brigade named after the Kosh Ataman Ivan Sirko was knocking the occupiers out of their trenches and trying to push them away from the road.
The Ukrainian defenders succeeded and made significant progress, says Yuriy Fedorenko, a commander of a drone attack company better known as Achilles.
– The enemy, realizing that they were failing, began to bring in their reserves. Our artillery destroyed a significant number of the occupiers in manpower, but some groups managed to get through. Accordingly, they came under fire from unmanned aerial vehicles, – says Fedorenko.
The drones attacked, among other things, the trench where Anitin tried to escape. When two of his accomplices were dead, the quadcopter operator saw the man raise his hands in the air.
Yuriy Fedorenko
– At that time, a copter with a lethal element was hovering over his head, meaning he was 30 seconds away from death. It was decided to take him, prisoner, if possible. The copter with the warhead flew on to complete its mission, while at the same time, it was decided very quickly and efficiently how to transmit information to the occupier, which would tell him what algorithm he should follow to get into Ukrainian captivity.
The guys got creative, and wrote on a piece of paper with a marker from the first aid kit – I’m speaking in the original language: “Surrender, go for the copter!”, this sheet was placed in a dry-paste file, added some earth, attached to the copter to make it weigh, flew and dropped it near the occupier,” Fedorenko said.
After reading the note, Anitin gestured that he agreed to surrender. The occupier kept trying to ask if he would be killed. In response, the operator shook the drone from left to right, showing that no one was going to kill the prisoner. Instead, it was his own compatriots who tried to kill the Russian soldier.
– When we began to escort him through the trench to our positions, another group of them opened fire with small arms to eliminate him. It is worth saying that this is a normal practice for the occupiers, they leave their 300s on the battlefield, set up barrier detachments to shoot those who retreat, shoot those who fight back from the group, and try to surrender, this is absolutely normal for the occupiers, – the commander said.
The Ukrainian military had to cover the occupier to protect him from his own men, the intelligence officer says.
– They did not hit their own servicemen because they were attacked by our drones and, in particular, by artillery. Thanks to the quadcopters, we managed to bring him to our positions, when we were sure that he did not pose a threat, he was not carrying explosives, and he was taken, prisoner. After he surrendered, he was provided with medical assistance as he had signs of injury, and after that, in accordance with the procedure, the Russian was handed over to our special services, which have already established his identity, purpose, and tasks he was performing,” said Fedorenko.
This story can become a good incentive for the Russian military to surrender, it is the only way to stay alive, the intelligence officer is convinced, – if you lay down your arms and raise your hands in the air, they will not kill you.
– Ukrainian warriors always follow the rules of warfare, we do not use prohibited ammunition, we follow the rules of capturing the enemy, as well as the detention of prisoners of war, and to confirm my words, you should watch the video of the exchange, which we give to the occupiers – well-fed, clean, well-fed, healthy. And what kind of guys they return to us – skinny, with maximum signs of abuse. This video, in my opinion, should become a motivation for the occupiers to lay down their arms and surrender, as this is the only chance for them to stay alive on our land,” Fedorenko said.
I am a small person, and I do not decide anything
Ruslan Anitin confirms the proper treatment he received from both the Ukrainian military and the special services, saying that he did not expect such an attitude.
– The guys treated me like a human being. I asked for water – they gave me water, I asked for a smoke. They limited themselves to questions, there was no violence, they fed me, provided me with medical care, and for some reason, it seemed to me, they were very skilled. They could have just not bothered with all this, shot me on the approach, so as not to bother with me, but they still took on a burden, a load in the form of me. I was evacuated from the positions together with the wounded. I was grateful that they left me alive, immensely grateful, – says Anitin.
Anitin evades answering questions about the purpose of their war, why Russians do not resist the criminal government, and why he wants to return home despite the fact that his compatriots shot him in the back and his command left him to certain death.
– I am a small person, and I do not decide anything. I would really like to see my family again. After all the events I’ve been through, I’m not going to go back, probably… Not probably, but in any case I’m not going to go back to war, regardless of what my future holds,” the occupier says.
