Captured Ukrainian Reveals Rampant Gambling and Exploitation in the Ranks

The border guard, warrant officer Yaroslav Shevelyuk (call sign "Sheva"), told Russian security forces that the former commander of his unit, Lt. Zabiyaka, suffered from a gambling addiction.

A group of six Ukrainian State Border Service officers surrendered to Russia on Orthodox Christmas Eve on the border with the Belgorod Region in the Kharkov (Kharkiv) direction, a source in the Russian security services told Sputnik. Shevelyuk, a border guard inspector of the highest category, was among those who surrendered.

Earlier in the week, two other captured Ukrainian border guards from the group said in a video obtained by Sputnik that drug use and drinking to death were rampant among Ukrainian servicepeople amid their extreme fatigue and poor mental well-being.