Three days at war: Captured Russian soldier describes chaos in ranks, pleads with fellow citizens

The man shown in the video is identified as Sergei Simakov, born in 1979, from Kirov, Russia. He served in the 102nd Regiment of Russia’s 150th Motorized Rifle Division.

Simakov says he enlisted to fight in the war against Ukraine “mostly for the money,” signing his contract on May 23. He was captured on June 6.

“Everyone tried to talk me out of it — even my own family. I have kids, everything. It was a mistake. But I went ahead and signed anyway. I had no idea it would all turn out like this — completely upside down,” he says in the video.

Simakov claims he thought he’d “squeeze onto the last train” and just drive vehicles. He expected two to three months of training, but that never happened. Instead, he says, even older men with skilled civilian jobs — like welders — were thrown straight into assault units.

“They just dumped everyone into assault groups,” he said.

He says he was also brought in and immediately pushed into an assault near Toretsk.

“When they dropped us off in the woods, that’s when I found out what a drone is, how you’re supposed to hide from it. And I found out the hard way — on my own skin,” he said.

Reflecting on his capture and survival, Simakov speculated that perhaps he lived “to tell my people back home and others in Russia what’s really happening in our army.”

“Just look at me. I lasted three days. That’s it — three days! I saw no training, nothing. And chasing the money? That makes no sense either. There’s no guarantee you’ll get it,” he said.

Simakov added that he never even saw his commanders and didn’t know the unit number. Troops were dropped off and immediately sent to storm Ukrainian defensive positions.

“This whole mess, I saw it firsthand — not the way they tell you it is. We were shouting, asking for evacuation. Three of us were wounded out of six, and they told us: ‘No, nothing. Hold your ground to the end.’ No water, no food, no supplies. I didn’t think it would be like this — not at all. I was only thinking about myself, about money, so my family would at least get something if something happened to me,” he said.

The prisoner added that he couldn’t even imagine the reality of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“People are dying right next to you. You’ve just met them, known them for two or three days — and they’re dead,” the Russian soldier lamented.

Earlier, a video surfaced online showing a native of Buryatia, also captured near Toretsk, complaining that the Russian government treats residents of the Far East as less than human — and wants to wipe out Buryats altogether.