Captured Russian soldier stuns his mother by saying he won’t return home and plans to fight on Ukraine’s side
The invader called his mother and told her some not-so-happy news (Photo: Butusov Plus/Telegram/screenshot)
A captured Russian soldier phoned his mother to say he would not return to Russia and planned instead to fight on Ukraine’s side — a call that, according to Ukrainian officials, did not go over well with her.
The video of the call was published today, Nov. 18, on the Butusov Plus Telegram channel. Twenty-one-year-old soldier Ruslan Dmitriev, from Russia’s Voronezh Oblast, called his mother to tell her about his capture and conditions in the Russian army.
The man began complaining that Russian authorities were sending soldiers to the front as “meat.” By contrast, he said, conditions in Ukrainian captivity were good and he was treated humanely.
He also said he had decided not to return home but to switch to Ukraine’s side and fight for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. His mother, to put it mildly, did not approve. “Have you lost your mind?” she said, immediately raising the issue of desertion. The man then realized she was less concerned about her son’s safety than about the payments she could receive for him.
“What’s more important — a living son or money?” he asked in the video. In response, she confirmed she was hoping for the financial compensation more than for Ruslan’s return or survival.
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