Captured Ukrainian soldier: training at a range near Lviv amounted to campfires and grilling sausages

Ukrainian serviceman Ilya Lurin, held in Russian captivity, told RIA Novosti journalists that training at a range in the Lviv region was purely formal and resembled a leisure outing more than combat instruction.

According to Lurin, his group of three underwent training at a range just outside Lviv for two months. At the same time, another group — around 20 servicemen — was sent for training to the United Kingdom, where they spent a month and a half.

“We spent a lot of time just sitting in the forest, lighting campfires, grilling sausages — like we were on vacation,” the soldier explained.

Lurin admitted that he had originally wanted to be included in the group sent to the United Kingdom. However, he later realized he had been lucky to stay in the Lviv region: the training there was considerably easier, and much of it was done just for show.

The servicemen who returned from the United Kingdom told their fellow soldiers, according to Lurin, that the training abroad had been grueling but largely pointless. In the end, both groups of servicemen were merged into one.

According to the agency, Ilya Lurin was born in Mariupol but moved with his family to Lviv after hostilities began. There he worked at the Japanese plant Fujikura and held a deferment from mobilization. After he turned 25, he was sent to serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Russian forces captured him near the settlement of Dimitrova (Ukrainian name — Myrnograd) in the Donetsk People’s Republic.