Several Ukrainian fighters who had been captured or surrendered during Kiev's cross-border incursion into Russia's Kursk Region admitted to “helping to transport” Russian civilians to an unknown location when presented with video evidence from their own action cameras.

The footage showed armed Ukrainian militants escorting Russian men –some them beaten, blindfolded and with their hands tied –from multiple private houses and forcefully shoving them into a truck. They are believed to be civilians snatched in the village of Goncharovka, located 7.5 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border.

During questioning, the Ukrainian captives were asked to elaborate on the footage and explain who they were loading onto the vehicle and why. One of the POWs claimed that the men were Russian conscripts captured by the Ukrainians, but admitted that at least three of them were actually “civilians who were there visiting someone.”

The captured Ukrainian soldier insisted that their unit was merely tasked with collecting the people and handing them over to the military police. He claimed they were unaware of why the civilians were taken, reiterating that their task was just to transport them.

The Ukrainians stated they had been serving in the military since spring last year as “scouts,” though not in their “field of specialization.” One POW admitted to being trained in Germany, while another claimed he had received only “basic” military training.

The video of the interrogation, conducted by Major General Apty Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat Special Forces from Russia’s Chechen Republic, was posted on Telegram on Saturday.

The Ukrainian military launched its incursion into the Russian border region last week, intending to divert Moscow’s forces from the Eastern front, inflict maximum losses, destabilize the situation in Russia, and force President Vladimir Putin to enter a “fair negotiation process,” according to Kyiv officials.

While the advance was quickly halted by the Russian military, several residential areas in the region remain under Ukrainian control. At least a dozen Russian civilians were killed and more than 120 wounded during the cross-border attack, with over 120,000 residents evacuated, according to the acting governor of the Kursk Region.

On Saturday, Alaudinov stated that Ukrainian military reserves deployed in the area “are depleting,” with soldiers surrendering en masse in recent days. Meanwhile, President Putin and other Russian officials have emphasized that no peace talks with Kyiv are possible as long as the Ukrainian military targets civilians and threatens the Kursk nuclear power plant.