You're reading: Three Russian-led fighters taken prisoner during combat in Donbas

Three fighters from the Russian-led forces in the Donbas have been taken prisoner by Ukrainian troops, the Joint Forces Operation press center reported early on May 21.

The fighters were captured overnight on May 21, when a commando team from Ukraine’s 46th Special Forces Battalion carried out a raid behind enemy lines near the occupied front-line town of Holmivskiy, some 600 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. The goal of the mission was to eliminate enemy positions that had been delivering fire on civilian areas, the military said.

During the raid, the Ukrainian commandos, led by a deputy battalion commander, discovered an enemy observation post and engaged it.

“After a brief firefight, one fighter was killed and three others were captured ,” the Ukrainian military press center said.

“The were no casualties among our troops. The three prisoners of war and their weapons have now been handed over to Ukraine’s officers with the SBU security agency serving within the Joint Operation Forces.”

The commando team of the 46th Battalion will be recommended for state awards, the military also said.

Meanwhile, the battalion’s commander, Colonel Vyacheslav Vlasenko said on his Facebook page that the fighter killed had been a Russian national from the city of Belgorod, while the three captured prisoners were residents of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian cities of Yenakieve and Horlivka.

A Russian-led fighter taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces overnight into May 21 near the city of Zaitseve.
Photo by Vyacheslav Vlasenko/Facebook
A Russian-led fighter taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces overnight into May 21 near the city of Zaitseve.
Photo by Vyacheslav Vlasenko/Facebook
Weapons captured by Ukrainian forces overnight into May 21 near the city of Zaitseve.
Photo by Joint Forces Operation/Facebook
A Russian-led fighter taken prisoner by Ukrainian forces overnight into May 21 near the city of Zaitseve.

The Donbas-Ukraine 46th Special Forces Battalion originates from the Donbas Battalion, which was formed in the spring of 2014 as a volunteer force after Russia launched its war in eastern Ukraine. In the following months, the unit, approved for service by the National Guard and initially led by Semen Semenchenko, now a controversial member of Ukraine’s parliament, was engaged in several clashes, including the deadly battles of Ilovaisk and Debaltseve.

Over the past three years Semenchenko has been widely criticized by his former subordinates for alleged incompetence, personally avoiding combat, and deliberately allowing there to be a high death toll among his soldiers in order to draw the attention of the mass media.

In January 2015, the battalion split, with most of its soldiers, disaffected with Semenchenko, following Vyacheslav Vlasenko and forming a separate special forces unit called Donbas-Ukraine under Armed Forces command. The newly created combat force continued using the unit’s original falcon insignia on their sleeve patches.

Semenchenko and other battalion fighters and veterans have been in a bitter feud since then.

The Donbas-Ukraine unit led by Vlasenko is continuing to fight Russian-led forces in the war zone of Donetsk Oblast.