Vlad, a Russian soldier, was heading from Ukraine again to Russia for a prisoner swap by bus final 12 months when a tall dark-haired man entered the car.
The person mentioned he was the commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVC) and provided the passengers an opportunity to hitch his unit of Russians preventing in and for Ukraine in opposition to their homeland.
Vlad, 27, raised his hand. He was the one Russian hostage on the bus to take action, becoming a member of a gaggle of fighters who had switched sides.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, an RVC spokesperson refused to say what number of Russian troopers have turned coats, however claimed that recruiting Russian prisoners of conflict (POWs) has boosted their ranks.
Formally created in August 2022 below the command of Ukraine’s army intelligence, RVC is likely one of the three all-Russian items preventing on Kyiv’s aspect.
It was based by Denis Kapustin, also called Denis Nikitin or White Rex. A former hooligan, combined martial arts fighter and well-known hard-right activist, Kapustin is barred from getting into the Schengen zone for his views.
German officers have described him as an “influential” neo-Nazi activist, in keeping with Politico, which interviewed him lately. He informed the journal that he slightly sees himself as “positively conservative, positively traditionalist, positively right-wing-ish”.
In Ukraine since 2018, Kapustin has been organising and main the militia. His unit, along with the opposite Russian teams, has made a number of incursions into Russian territory as a part of what they name an effort to liberate Russia from occupiers.
“We’re an official a part of [the] Ukrainian military however we now have critical political ambitions and political agenda – to eliminate [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he informed Politico.
When Vlad, who was born and raised within the metropolis of Samara, first met Kapustin on the bus, he promised to defend Ukraine and struggle for a brand new Russia.
“I wished to make up for my previous errors,” he informed Al Jazeera in a restaurant close to Kyiv. “Sooner or later, I understood that what they have been telling us in Russia was a whole lie.”
Vlad mentioned he initially had no plans to hitch the Russian military.
At a younger age, he turned concerned within the hooligan motion, which was usually nationalistic with strains of racism, and at odds with the authorities.
He enlisted within the military when he was serving a jail sentence of three years and eight months for an assault. It was his third stint in jail since he was 15. He was promised that his prison document could be annulled.
“I wished to clear my story and go away Russia. With a prison document, I couldn’t get a Schengen visa to hitch my dad and mom overseas,” Vlad mentioned.
In 2022, he joined the Wagner Group, the non-public army firm headed by the late Vladimir Prigozhin, a former Putin ally turned insurrectionist, who personally visited Vlad’s jail to recruit fighters.
Every convict was promised a month-to-month wage of 250,000 roubles ($2,675) together with a fight allowance.
“[Prigozhin] mentioned that he had the authority from the president to take anybody. He requested us to hitch the struggle and defend our homeland. He mentioned there are Nazis and People in Ukraine, that kids have been being killed,” Vlad mentioned.
“We have been promised to be put within the second line, within the defence positions. However then, every week later, they began getting ready us for the storm. We understood there was no going again, and that we should struggle until the top. As a result of in the event you don’t comply with orders, you get shot.”
After two weeks of intense coaching, Vlad went to the entrance. However after about six weeks, in November 2022, he was taken by Ukrainian troops and spent 9 months in captivity.
Al Jazeera didn’t discover proof that Vlad or different Russian prisoners of conflict have been coerced into preventing for Ukraine.
Nevertheless, such a chance can’t be dominated out.
In November 2023, Russian state media launched video footage of Ukrainian prisoners of conflict swearing allegiance to Moscow amid reviews they have been being despatched to struggle for Russia.
On the time, Yulia Gorbunova, a researcher on Ukraine at Human Rights Watch, mentioned whereas Russian authorities may declare they have been recruiting them on a voluntary foundation, “it’s onerous to think about a situation the place a prisoner of conflict’s choice might be taken really voluntarily, given the state of affairs of coercive custody”.
Identical to Vlad, earlier than he joined the conflict, 25-year-old Mikhail Viktorovich Pavlov was in jail.
He was serving a six-year sentence for possession of 9gm (0.32 ounces) of hashish. He says the medicine have been planted to him by native authorities in his hometown, Ivanovo.
He was at all times vocal about their wrongdoing, they usually wished to silence him.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, and Wagner and the Russian Ministry of Defence began recruiting prisoners to hitch the conflict, Pavlov mentioned he started to plot his plan.
Whereas he was in opposition to the conflict and President Vladimir Putin, he noticed becoming a member of the military as a possibility to achieve freedom and switch himself in to the Ukrainians.
“I understood completely effectively that in the event you attempt to desert from Wagner, it can finish very badly. It was virtually not possible. However the military may be very handy on this regard,” Pavlov, whose name signal is “Pers”, informed Al Jazeera in Kyiv.
“If you wish to cover or run away and you’ve got your head screwed on, you are able to do it simply.”
4 years and two months into his sentence, Pavlov was pushed to Ukraine’s Luhansk area to hitch the conflict in Might 2023.
He acquired coaching and, after a month, was posted to Zaporizhzhia.
“I collected some necessary info on the Russian positions, and I moved in the direction of the Ukrainian positions. At first, no one believed me. I went by all kinds of polygraph, psychological and bodily checks. It took just a few months however, in the long run, they accepted me,” Pavlov mentioned.
Quickly after, Nikitin paid him a go to and provided to hitch the RVC. Pavlov mentioned he has by no means regretted his choice.
Pavlov and Vlad, now full-fledged members of RVC, say they took half in an incursion into Belgorod final month.
They each claimed to have girlfriends in Ukraine and mentioned they didn’t need to return to Russia. Each mentioned they don’t miss something about their homeland.
“From August, after I joined, to the current day, I’ve realised myself as a human, as an individual, rather more than within the 24 years of my life there,” Pavlov mentioned. “Sadly, Russia couldn’t supply me something.”