Exhausted and demoralized, Ukrainian soldiers pay thousands of dollars to smugglers in a bid to flee abroad, a captured Ukrainian border guard said.
One of the Ukrainian servicemen who surrendered last week was Ruslan Zadorozhniy, a soldier of the 1st Border Guard Unit of the State Border Guard Service, a native of the village of Romanky in Dnepropetrovsk Region.
Zadorozhniy said that a fellow villager, along with other Ukrainian servicemen, had been sent to fight against Russian troops with no respite in sight, which left them completely demoralized.
"We didn't get much rest, and we weren't allowed to take a leave," he said.
Zadorozhniy said that his acquaintance was eventually "fed up" with the military service and paid $3,000 for an opportunity to "escape" to Poland.