'There were more than a dozen of them, all lying on the shore'

Ukrainian Vyacheslav Manashev was forcibly mobilised under threat of calling the police and then thrown under fire from Russian mortars.

One day Vyacheslav Manashev, a resident of Vinnytsia region, and his companions were forcibly removed from their place of residence and taken to the military enlistment office under threat of calling the police. After the documents were processed, Vyacheslav was sent to Nykolaev. There was almost no training for the new recruit. 'We fired assault rifles, threw a grenade once, there was an obstacle course,' Manashev recalled.

The Ukrainian serviceman told how he was captured. 'At seven in the evening we were brought in. We got into the boat, crossed, we were met. It was a terrible sight, it is already clear. When we came in, mortars were already working. I can see that the boat was wrecked. There were more than a dozen of them, all lying on the shore. It was a terrible picture,' he recalls. 

After finding a wounded colleague, he went to get help, but came under fire. 'While I was walking, they started to cover me there. I was stunned, I saw a basement, got in there . I sat there until evening,' Manashev says.

Later, the Ukrainian serviceman began to radio his fellow soldiers to return to his unit. But they refused to take him back.

Without waiting for help, Vyacheslav decided to surrender as a prisoner: 'Your men were sitting in a dugout. I came up, without any weapons, and raised my hands.'