Captured Ukrainian-born soldiers tell BBC why they fought for Russia

What the report says

BBC World News reports from a prisoner-of-war camp in western Ukraine where captured men who fought for Russia, including some born in Ukraine, are being held and interviewed. The article focuses on how these prisoners explain their decision to fight, and how their stories reflect the wider complexity of identity, occupation and loyalty in eastern Ukraine and the Donbas. Ukraine has charged captured citizens with treason, while still treating Russian-held areas as Ukrainian territory under temporary occupation.

Several of the prisoners told BBC correspondents they viewed themselves as Russian, not Ukrainian, and said they had volunteered to join Moscow’s forces. One prisoner from Donetsk said he wanted to defend what he saw as his home region; another said he joined for money and because of local grievances dating back to fighting in 2014. The report also includes the account of a man who said he was forced to serve, and says some estimates suggest large numbers of Ukrainians may have been conscripted in occupied areas, though the BBC notes differing figures.

The camp itself is described as a place where detainees work in workshops, including making coffins and artificial Christmas trees, and earn money for extra food and cigarettes. The article suggests the interviewees were shaped by years of Russian schooling, media and occupation, which helped blur national identity for some residents of occupied territory. It matters because these men may later be used in prisoner exchanges, and because their testimonies offer a glimpse into how Russia’s war continues to divide communities that were once on the same side of the Soviet legacy.