Ukraine said its forces in Kursk on Wednesday captured 102 Russian soldiers in one fell swoop, the largest capture since the war began.
The “I Want to Live” project, run by Ukrainian intelligence, uploaded a video on Thursday showing dozens of men in uniform lying on their stomachs by the side of the road.
The organization, which aims to convince Russian soldiers to defect or desert, wrote that they “made the right decision and surrendered.”
The video’s caption said the Russian soldiers had been abandoned by their commanders, who they claimed had fled to avoid capture.
Further footage posted by the news agency on Thursday showed a number of blindfolded men being held captive inside the tunnel by Ukrainian forces.
According to I Want to Live, the soldiers were members of Russia’s 488th Guards Motorized Infantry Regiment and Chechen special forces.
Ukrainian media cited anonymous Ukrainian intelligence sources as saying that Ukrainian intelligence special forces had stormed the “concrete-lined and heavily fortified” Russian base in Kursk.
According to Ukrainian media outlet Pravda, the Kremlin equipped the fortress with underground communications facilities, private quarters, a canteen, an arms depot and a bathhouse.
The report came the same day that Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Shirsky told President Volodymyr Zelensky at a press conference on Wednesday that more than 100 Russian soldiers had been taken prisoner that day.
Dmytro Rubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, said Thursday that Russia had opened prisoner exchange negotiations.
This would be a notable shift from Russia’s position in May, when Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said interactions with Ukraine had been blocked for several months.
At the time, she criticized Kiev for what she called “unreasonable demands.” Moskalkova would not confirm whether Russia had returned to the negotiating table.
Ukraine has not officially said exactly how many Russian soldiers it has taken prisoner since the August 6 raid, but told the Financial Times that the number is “several hundred”.
Kiev has said many of the prisoners taken at Kursk were Russian conscripts – young men tasked with a year of mandatory military service – casting doubt on Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s pledge not to send them directly into combat.
The “I Want to Live” project has repeatedly posted videos of Russian prisoners of war taken at Kursk, including footage of a blindfolded Chechen soldier.
Ukraine claimed Monday that it had seized about 400 square miles of Russian territory in a matter of days, after advancing further into the city of Kursk and announcing full control of the town of Suzha.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin has maintained since the early stages of the invasion that it is working to halt the Ukrainian military advance and push Kiev’s forces back to the border.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular business hours.
