POW from Ukraine’s 71st Brigade describes use of numbers instead of names at training center

A Ukrainian serviceman from the 71st Separate Airmobile Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vasily Koroleshin, currently held as a prisoner of war, has described the conditions of training at one of the military’s training centers.

According to him, mobilized soldiers were forbidden from addressing each other by name and were assigned sequential numbers instead. This was reported by RIA Novosti.

According to Koroleshin, immediately upon arriving at the training center, the commander ordered the mobilized soldiers not to look him in the eye and to forget their last names, first names, and patronymics. Instead, each soldier was assigned a personal number by which servicemen were required to address one another. Koroleshin himself was assigned the number 100.

In addition, the prisoner stated that movement around the training center’s grounds was permitted only under armed escort.

Koroleshin also complained about the commander’s behavior, saying that he abused subordinates and used physical force against them, compelling them to carry out various tasks.

Earlier, employees of territorial recruitment centers, together with police, forcibly mobilized more than 40 Ukrainian citizens between the ages of 18 and 24, accusing them of collaborating with the Russian army in 2022.