Russians seized in Ukraine say they were following Moscow’s orders
Russian citizens Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeniy Yerofeyev, who were captured in the town of Schastya in Luhansk region on May 16
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Two Russian men captured by Ukrainian forces fighting pro-Russian rebels have told a newspaper they were in Ukraine on a mission for the Russian military, contradicting Moscow’s official line.
Speaking from a hospital bed in Kyiv, one of the men, Alexander Alexandrov, became tearful when his interviewer told him his relatives had told Russian state media that he had quit the Russian military before heading to Ukraine.
“Why are they turning their backs on me?” he was quoted as saying by the Russian weekly Novaya Gazeta. “There was an order. I gave my oath to the motherland … There was an order and, as a military man, I carried it out.”
Ukraine’s military said the two men had been wounded in a firefight in eastern Ukraine, and were being treated for their injuries. Authorities in Kyiv have said they will be charged with “terrorist acts”.
In a video posted online by the Ukrainian Interior Ministry this week, Alexandrov said he had been on a spying mission in Ukraine as part of a 14-member special forces group from the Russian town of Tolyatti.