'We ran until we were completely surrounded'

A serviceman of the 14th Separate Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guards of the AFU, Artyom Fomov, surrendered near Pokrovsk. He described how he was forcibly mobilised, as well as the poor level of training and difficult front line conditions.

Fomov was detained at a checkpoint due to the two-days delay in his booking document. The attempt to receive a delay in a military commissariat to update the documents failed: instead of resolving the substantive issue, he was sent to a training centre without a trial.

'In order to teach properly, they didn't really teach us. To dig trenches. A couple of exercises, one shot. And so mainly for stamina: into a forest, out of a forest, obstacles,' he recalls about trainings.

After training, Fomov was sent to the front line in Rodinskoye. The position was in a kindergarten building. During one month, the militants asked the command to be rotated, but the promised rotation never took place. In an attempt to escape independently, the AFU soldiers went to the positions of Russian troops and were captured:

'We ran to our guys. Then with them - to another group. And we ran so hard that we were completely surrounded... and we were taken prisoner'.

Russian Defence Ministry