Russian troops refuse to go on offensive, flee surrender - AFU spokesman

The spokesman for the joint press centre of the Tavria Defence Forces, Oleksandr Shtupun, shared this on the Espreso TV channel.

"Recently, about 40 Russian soldiers left the trenches without permission and tried to escape with weapons towards Crimea. That is, we are talking about a whole platoon of the Russian army. There was information that they were being caught, they will try to bring them back," he said.

As the Russian forces refuse to go on the offensive, representatives of Russia's high command arrive at the positions. They are intimidating the military, threatening to shoot them and physically abusing them, Ukraine's Armed Forces spokesman said.

"This is how they stimulate Russian soldiers to conduct assault operations. They humiliate them both morally and physically. The newly mobilized, who have just arrived at the front, have not seen those horrors and do not understand anything. That is why those who have already been on the offensive, survived somehow, but are afraid to go back there again," said Shtupun.

According to him, Russian forces refuse to go on the offensive because of the cold weather and sanitary conditions at the front.

"They agree to stand on the defensive, but they do not want to go on the offensive, to conduct assault operations. After all, even a minor injury in the cold and the current level of field medicine in Russia ends in most cases with death," said Shtupun.

Over the past four days, 30 people surrendered. The process itself always varies, says the Ukrainian army spokesman.

"Sometimes it is the survivors of assault groups. For example, there is a group of 10 people, 7 of whom were killed, and the rest follow the quadcopters to our positions. UAV operators lead them to surrender. Sometimes our reconnaissance groups or assault units are taken by surprise at some positions. Some come out under an agreement under the 'I want to live' program, but mostly Russian soldiers surrender in battle," he said.

• On January 9, Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, commander of the Tavria operational-strategic group of troops said that the Ukrainian Defense Forces had captured almost 30 Russian soldiers in the southern sector over three days.