Ukraine said that its forces in Kursk captured 102 Russian soldiers in one sitting on Wednesday, marking the largest group it’s taken prisoner since the war began.
The “I Want to Live” project, run by Ukrainian intelligence, uploaded a video on Thursday of dozens of uniformed men lying on their stomachs next to a road.
They had “made the right decision and surrendered,” wrote the agency, which aims to persuade Russian troops to defect or desert.
A caption for the video said the Russian soldiers had been abandoned by the commanders, alleging that the latter fled to avoid capture themselves.
More footage posted on Thursday by the agency showed a large number of blindfolded men held in a tunnel by Ukrainian troops.
“I Want to Live” said the soldiers had been from Russia’s 488th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment and Chechen special forces.
Ukrainian media cited an unnamed source from Ukraine’s intelligence services who said that the agency’s special forces unit had stormed a “concreted and well-fortified” Russian base in Kursk.
The Kremlin fitted the stronghold with underground communications, personal quarters, a canteen, an armory, and a bathhouse, Ukrainian media outlet Pravda reported.
The reports come as Ukraine’s commander in chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a briefing on Wednesday that over 100 Russian troops had been captured that day.
Dmytro Lubinets, the human rights commissioner of Ukraine’s parliament, said on Thursday that Russia had initiated prisoner exchange talks.
That would be a notable shift from Russia’s position in May, when its human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, said that exchanges with Ukraine had been blocked for several months.
At the time, she blamed Kyiv for what she called “far-fetched demands.” Moskalkova has not confirmed whether Russia has returned to the negotiating table.
Ukraine hasn’t officially said exactly how many Russian troops it’s taken captive since it launched its surprise attack on August 6, but told the Financial Times that the number is in the “hundreds.”
Kyiv said a large number of its prisoners taken in Kursk were Russian conscripts — young men made to serve a year of mandatory military service — bringing into question Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s vow not to send any of them into direct combat.
The “I Want to Live” project has repeatedly posted videos of Russian prisoners of war seized in Kursk, including footage of what it said were blindfolded Chechen troops.
Ukraine claimed on Monday to have seized nearly 400 square miles of Russian territory in a matter of days. It said later that it had pushed further into Kursk and taken full control of the town of Sudzha.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has claimed since the early days of the incursion that it’s stopped Ukraine’s advance and is working to force Kyiv’s troops back to the border.
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
