Ukraine could have pulled off a real coup in the fight against the Russian occupiers. Because this video allegedly shows Major Tomov, who has been missing for days. He is the commander of the Russian armed forces for the region around the city of Kherson and is, according to these recordings, in Ukrainian captivity.
According to some military bloggers, Ukrainian special forces crossed the Dnipro River and imitated a call for help from Russian troops there. Major Tomov is said to have rushed to the village of Kosatschi Laheri with some soldiers and was apparently overpowered there.
This video now shows the captured commander with a map of the area. He is said to have betrayed the locations of Russian positions and fortifications to the Ukrainian troops.
During his interrogation, Tomov reports that his battalion suffered significant losses within a few days. He bemoans poor training and morale within the Russian armed forces. Numerous soldiers would now refuse the orders. He was also deceived by the Kremlin. Because, contrary to what he was told, he did not find a Nazi regime in Ukraine that was oppressing its own people.
“I have therefore found that the war that Vladimir Putin started is not at all the strategy that we should be pursuing here. This is an occupation, a cruel war that does not spare the civilian population and endangers the lives of the citizens of Russia and Ukraine.”
Tomov goes on to say that he found it increasingly difficult to command his soldiers, knowing that he was sending many of them to their certain deaths. In the course of the months he had more and more doubts about the sense of the war.
“I feel great pain and incomprehension at what is happening through President Vladimir Putin’s thoughtless, fanatical policies. I don’t understand how people’s worldview could turn 180 degrees and people who dreamed of a peaceful life are now killing each other. And that for ideals that have nothing to do with reality.”
Under what circumstances these statements by Major Tomov were made during the interrogation cannot be finally clarified. They should therefore be treated with caution.
However, if the commander of the Ukrainian army did indeed reveal the locations of Russian positions, this could actually be a decisive advantage on the front line around Kherson.