New details have emerged about the May 22 capture of eight Ukrainian military personnel by Russian-backed militants in the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast.
According to an earlier report by the Ukrainian army, the eight soldiers were riding in a truck when they took a wrong turn near the town of Novotroitske, some 30 kilometers southwest of the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk, and were arrested by Russian-backed forces.
Now Darya Andrusenko-Yakotyuk, a civilian volunteer providing aid to the Ukrainian military, has revealed more information about the captured soldiers.
She said that the eight soldiers served in the 43rd armored infantry battalion, Patriot of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. On the day they were captured, they were not on a combat mission and were not armed.
“We don’t know now why they decided to cut their route short. Nor do we know why they were not questioned at the checkpoint (between the Ukraine-controlled and the occupied parts of Donetsk Oblast) about the purpose of their trip to the demarcation line. They had (checkpoint crossing) passwords only for the controlled territories,” Andrusenko-Yakotyuk wrote on Facebook.
“We aren’t removing the responsibility from those servicemen for their lack of attention. But there are questions why such a big vehicle was not stopped at the checkpoint and not warmed that the uncontrolled area was further ahead? Why was it possible to cross the demarcation line without a password?” she added.
Here are the names of the eight Ukrainian servicemen captured in the Donbas war zone.
From top left to the right:
Senior soldier Borys Pundor. Born in 1965
Senior soldier Oleksandr Heymur. Born in 1994
Senior soldier Kim Duvanov. Born in 1971
Warrant officer Viktor Shaidov. Born in 1970
From bottom left to the right:
Senior soldier Pavlo Korsun. Born in 1982
Senior soldier Maksym Horyainov. Born in 1984
Senior soldier Yuriy Hordiychuk. Born in 1982
Senior sergeant Roman Bespalyi. Born in 1981
In a comment to the Kyiv Post, the 53rd Mechanized Infantry Brigade press service confirmed that the information provided by Andrusenko-Yakotyuk was correct.
Overall, 118 people are currently being held captive in the Donbas, including civilians and 41 Ukrainian military personnel. Additionally, 73 Ukrainian citizens are detained or imprisoned in Crimea and Russia as dissidents and political prisoners. And 24 Ukrainian naval officers have been detained in Russia for six months. On May 25, the International Tribunal for the Law of Sea ordered Russia to release them immediately.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war his priority. The last prisoner swap between Ukraine and the Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk Oblast took place on December 27, 2017.
Illia Ponomarenko contributed reporting to this story.
