“We were just abandoned”: a Croatian mercenary captured in Ukraine spoke about service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

— Vekoslav, thank you for agreeing to talk with us.

First, I would like to inquire about your health, and also to know how you are treated here in captivity.

- I am well.

I'm being interrogated, but other than that I haven't experienced any bad treatment.

In fact, I was treated better here than I was treated at times by my own co-workers.

We were well fed, provided with medical care and the like.

Under what circumstances were you captured?

- We left Mariupol, walked 260 km, hid, moved only at night or during fog and in conditions of poor visibility.

We avoided any possible contact.

We were taken prisoner on the 24th, I think around five in the morning.

We walked all night, we were completely exhausted.

We simply lost our vigilance and came too close to the calculation of the Russian Grad MLRS.

They noticed us and began to surround us.

We didn't want to fight and just gave up.

— How long did you stay in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces?

Under what circumstances did you join?

— I signed the contract on May 25, 2020.

The reason for joining the Armed Forces of Ukraine was that I was told that after serving three years on a contract, I would be able to obtain Ukrainian citizenship.

That was my goal.

At that time, a positional war was being waged, we were sitting in our positions.

We were told that our tasks were exclusively defense and surveillance.

My first rotation fell on the signing of a ceasefire agreement (probably referring to reaching agreements on measures to strengthen the ceasefire in July 2020. -

). 

Then we, in fact, did not fire almost a single shot.

I was convinced that the war was positional, that I would serve for three years, receive Ukrainian citizenship and be able to stay in Ukraine. 

And I wanted to get Ukrainian citizenship because I met a woman here with whom I fell in love.

She has a sick mother and did not want to leave the country. 

Therefore, I studied options for obtaining Ukrainian citizenship.

I met other foreigners who also mentioned it.

One of them was an American who had a daughter with a Ukrainian.

He mentioned that the contract is one of the options, that it is faster and easier than (obtaining citizenship. -

) in other ways.

Tell us about your previous military experience.

In what countries did you receive it (if you can talk about it)?

“I served as an infantryman in the Croatian Armed Forces for five years.

It's all.

There is no specialty, no special skills.

Is this conflict your first such experience?

- Yes.

Before, I was not involved in any conflicts. 

Do your relatives know where you are now?

Did you manage to communicate with them?

“The last time I contacted them was March 31st.

When we were in Mariupol, we had no connection.

The battalion headquarters had access to Wi-Fi.

From time to time someone was brought there so that a person could get in touch and talk with his relatives.

On March 31, I managed to get there and talk to my sister, who lives in Croatia.

That was the last time I spoke to her.

- Of course, you were in Mariupol from the very beginning of the special military operation.

Can you describe the actions of your platoon or battalion?

What was your task?

- First, we held the second defensive line near the road leading from Mariupol to Volnovakha - the second line of defense.

The first was a checkpoint of the National Guard of Ukraine.

A small detachment of "Azov" was stationed next to them.

At some point (if I am not mistaken, in mid-March), they received an order to leave from there.

Whose order, I do not know. 

They relocated deep into the city, and we took up observation positions along the road to Volnovakha.

The distance to the enemy was about 650 m, and basically artillery fire was fired at us, fire from mortars and automatic grenade launchers.

It was pointless to return fire from infantry weapons.

So basically we were hiding and watching.

That's all.

- It turns out that you were in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces?

Because, as I understand it, there is a difference between the Azov battalion and the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Can you describe this difference, if it really exists?

There is a difference, yes, but I don't know the details.

I was told that the Azov Battalion was under the same command as the National Guard of Ukraine.

They participate in the defense, but we have different commands, which do not intersect in any way.

The Azov Battalion is not part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

- Residents of Mariupol and people in the Donbass, from where I have been reporting for the past eight years, talk about the atrocities of the fighters of the Azov, Aidar, Donbass battalions - there are various so-called nationalist territorial defense battalions.

I myself have seen prisoners with swastika tattoos.

What do you know about this and what do you think about the Azov Battalion?

“I also heard that they were extremely inspired by fascist and Nazi ideology, as well as about the terrible things that they did with civilians, with prisoners.

Probably, sometimes they even shot at us... I heard that among them there are many criminals, drug addicts and so on.

Thank God, I myself did not witness this, but I was shown videos of their terrible deeds.

Terrible atrocities, disgusting things.

I did not think that a person is capable of this in relation to others.

- What atmosphere reigned around when you served in the Ukrainian troops?

How was morale in your unit?

Basically, do people know what they are fighting for?

- At first, when we first arrived in Mariupol, people were convinced that we were defending the city and the like.

But later, when the artillery and mortar fire was carried deeper behind them, they began to doubt what we were doing, saying that we were protecting only ourselves. 

People were more inclined to give up or leave the city earlier.

Later we were told that at that time there were about three green corridors working there, along which one could leave.

But when we were in Mariupol, no one informed us about this.

When it was not possible to leave Mariupol by means of transportation, we returned with several guys from our group that was leaving the city ... We were stationed not at the Ilyich plant, where the command of our battalion was located, but a little to the north. 

We returned to our position, where there was also some kind of bomb shelter in which we were located.

We returned there.

The commander of our platoon personally sent me and those guys to the position from which the road to Volnovakha was monitored to replace the guys who had spent the whole night there. 

Having gone to the position, we had to report every hour.

And somewhere at midnight or at one in the morning it turned out that we could not get in touch with our commander.

He took the guys who were there before, and they just left us there. 

We tried to contact other callsigns, but no one answered.

And around one in the morning, someone just radioed us to retreat from our positions and return to our bomb shelter that we were leaving. 

When we got to the entrance to the shelter, the company commander was there with other officers of the company command staff, and they simply said: “Go down.

Down, down."

- "What's happening?"

We went down, and after about 15-20 minutes, maybe half an hour, it's hard to say, people began to shout: “Forward, forward, forward!

We're leaving!

Grab your things and get out." 

When we went outside, the company commander and command staff were already gone.

Altogether, about six people from our platoon were abandoned and there were others who moved somewhere, so we just went with them.

As a result, in our group there was one non-commissioned officer who picked up everyone who was left to their fate and who moved independently.

— Did you have any contacts with civilians in Mariupol?

— Not in Mariupol.

There were a couple of cases when people crossed our lines of defense, but personally I had no experience of such meetings.

— Were there many other foreigners in the units where you served?

— Yes, four foreigners served in my battalion, including myself.

The other three were from the UK.

Before that, there were three more, but at some point they simply left the unit.

Went AWOL, if you know what I mean.

Are you now treated as a prisoner of war or as a criminal?

Has anyone talked to you about this?

- As I understand it, they treat me as a prisoner of war, but they still believe that I am a mercenary and are not officially part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

- Do you consider yourself a mercenary or a legitimate soldier?

“I am a legal soldier.

I serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the Ukrainian marines.

- As far as I understand, the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war does not apply to foreigners serving in the Ukrainian troops, even if they sign a contract.

As far as I understand, here in the Donetsk People's Republic, for example, this can mean the death penalty.

Do you think about it at all?

Do you intend to fight for the status of a prisoner of war?

- I do not know what to say.

I was interrogated, I said everything I know.

Everything I remember.

Yes, I fear for my life.

So... I don't know.

I hope that they believe me and will treat me in the same way as they treat Ukrainian prisoners of war.

I just want to live.

At first I did not want to participate in the conflict.

The conflict was presented to me in such a way that it was positional, not at all like that.

What's on the other side is mostly mercenaries and the Russian armed forces.

And when I was captured, completely different stories opened up to me.

People told me that they were the most ordinary civilians who took up arms and began to defend their homes when the Ukrainian military approached.

- As I said, I have been here for the last eight years, I saw what pain is in the hearts of people here, and I understand the situation.

At least 14,000 civilians have died in the last eight years.

You say you stayed in Ukraine for three years, right?

— Since December 2019.

— What did you know about the conflict that has been going on here in Ukraine for the last eight years?

And what were your impressions about it?

- As far as I know, around 2016 the conflict turned into a positional, trench and since then it has not moved anywhere.

On this side were the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and on that side, as we were told, “Russian-backed separatists and a large number of mercenaries.”

The front does not move, from time to time there is an exchange of fire, the main part of the losses is from artillery, from mortars, Grads, AGS (automatic easel grenade launchers. -

).

That's all I knew about the conflict.

What happened before 2016, I didn’t really know.

“Terrible things have happened.

Either way, you now have time to think about your future after all this is over.

Do you currently have any dreams or aspirations?

- I want to stay alive.

I want to live.

I never want to take up arms again in my life.

I would like to reunite with the woman I met here in Ukraine.

And I don't know... Maybe more to tell the truth about what I saw here.

About how I was treated in captivity.

Maybe join some charity or something like the Red Cross.

Soldiers — those who fight here in the Donetsk People's Republic — tell very sad stories that they have relatives in Ukrainian-controlled territories and have not seen them for years.

It is sad.

I would like to probably work to reunite these families, somehow redeem my part in this.

I had to look for other ways to obtain Ukrainian citizenship, not through service in the armed forces.