Israeli Citizen Fighting for Ukraine Gets Captured by Pro-Russian Forces (VIDEO)

UKRAINE (VINnews) — Israel’s government has confirmed that an Israeli citizen fighting for Ukraine has been taken captive by pro-Russian forces.

Vladimir Kozlovsky, age 40, was born in Ukraine, and was drafted into the Ukrainian military. A video has been released on social media by the separatist Luhansk Republic Army, showing Mr. Kozlovsky describing the circumstances that led to his capture.

#Israel|i citizen fighting on the side of #Ukraine army was captured by #LNR forces. He saying that He is electronic warfare professional #Donbass pic.twitter.com/2x5P4iNcqO

— Middle East Update (@islamicworldupd) June 30, 2022

According to a translation by an Israeli news website, he explained that when he tried to leave the country, the Ukrainian government forced him to remain and fight. “I met with the Israeli consulate, they gave me a certificate so that I could leave the country and they [Ukrainian authorities] detained me at the border,”

“We had a weapon, but we did not know how to use it… They did not train us to fight and sent us to the battlefield,” Mr. Kozlovsky continued. “They also did not tell us that we were going to fight. We thought we would stay in western Ukraine until we reached the Luhansk region. We were thrown like cannon fodder.”

“We received messages from the Russians that it was better for us to surrender,” he said. “We soldiers also talked about it before, but the commanders tried to prevent these conversations. We were told, if you surrender, you will be tortured to death. It is better not to surrender alive.”

In the video, Mr. Kozlovsky displayed his Israeli ID card, issued in 2010. According to the translation of the video, he has a wife and child, and has been living in Ukraine for several years.