Key facts
- Ukraine's 225th Separate Assault Regiment claims to have captured 64 Russian soldiers.
- The captured soldiers were allegedly tasked with infiltrating Ukrainian positions to gather intelligence and plant flags for propaganda.
- The operation took place in settlements in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
- The captured soldiers have been added to Ukraine's pool of prisoners of war.
- A video purportedly showing some of the captured soldiers was released.
Ukraine's 225th Separate Assault Regiment announced on July 20 that its forces captured 64 Russian soldiers during an operation in Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The regiment stated that the Russian soldiers were tasked with infiltrating behind Ukrainian lines to locate drone crews, gather intelligence, and plant Russian flags in villages for propaganda purposes, falsely suggesting the settlements had been captured.
Ukrainian troops reported detecting and clearing these infiltrating groups from several settlements, including Ternuvate, Kosivtseve, Rizdvianka, Verkhnia Tersa, and Vozdvyzhivka. The captured soldiers are now part of Ukraine's prisoner of war pool for potential future exchanges.
The regiment also released a video that allegedly shows some of the captured Russian soldiers. In the footage, one POW stated he was instructed to avoid close-quarters combat to minimize casualties, while another mentioned being offered a chance to surrender and subsequently receiving food and being moved away from the front line.
The exact date of the capture was not specified by the regiment. The Kyiv Independent noted that it could not independently verify the authenticity of the video or the claims made by the 225th Separate Assault Regiment, which is reportedly closely associated with Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.