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Russian troops are compared to ISIS militants after ‘demanding €5,000 ransom from mother of captured Ukrainian soldier to stop them executing him on video’
- Russian troops were compared to ISIS after demanding money in ransom video
- The soldiers reportedly threatened to execute a captured Ukrainian soldier
- They sent video of Novikov Alexey Antonovich to his mother and demanded €5k
- A Ukrainian presidential adviser said it showed Russia was a ‘terrorist state’
A Ukrainian adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Russian troops to ISIS militants today after Putin‘s forces threatened to execute a captured soldier on video unless his mother paid a ransom.
Ukrainian soldier Novikov Alexey Antonovich, from Mariupol, said he was captured on April 23, and was part of the 109th brigade of the Donetsk territorial defence.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said video of the captured soldier showed Russia was a ‘terrorist state’.
He said: ‘The military is increasingly reminiscent of ISIS militants. Russia must be recognised as a terrorist state.’
Ukrainian soldier Novikov Alexey Antonovich (pictured), from Mariupol, said he was captured on April 23, and was part of the 109th brigade of the Donetsk territorial defence
The young soldier was filmed by his Russian captors for a video sent to his mother. They demanded €5,000 unless she wanted the next video to be of her son’s execution
He added the Russian soldiers threatened to send a video of his execution if they didn’t receive the money.
Footage showed the Ukrainian soldier being filmed as he was asked his name and how he was being treated.
The video was sent to the young soldier’s mother with a demand of €5,000 if she wanted her son to remain alive.
In the footage shared online by Mr Podolyak, the Ukrainian soldier told his Russian captor he was being treated ‘okay’. He said: ‘I have food here, water, a toilet.’
Deranged despot Vladimir Putin wanted his war in Ukraine to last just days and end with the toppling of its pro-Western government.
However, it entered its third month last week as Russia continued to batter the southern port city of Mariupol and launched fresh attacks throughout the Donbas as Ukrainians and Russians alike celebrated Orthodox Easter.
Fighting has been particularly heavy in Mariupol. Russia has redirected its forces to the east of Ukraine after failing to capture Kyiv. Pictured: A destroyed tank and a burned vehicle sit in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol on April 23
A boy stands next to a wrecked vehicle in front of an apartment building damaged during Ukraine-Russia war in the southern port city of Mariupol on April 24
A satellite image shows damage at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol on April 24
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol were exhausting many Russian troops. It added that Russia had ‘yet to achieve a significant breakthrough’ of defensive lines in Donbas
British intelligence said today that Russia had ‘yet to achieve a significant breakthrough’ of defensive lines in Donbas despite Ukraine imposing a ‘significant cost’ on Putin’s forces.
Britain’s Ministry of Defence said poor logistical and combat support were hampering Russia’s advances, as they did in the failed effort to take Kyiv.
Ukrainian defenders holed up in the Azovstal steel works in the southern city of Mariupol – which is still under siege – were also pinning down ‘many Russian units’ and preventing them from redeploying to the Donbas front, while also exhausting Putin’s troops and reducing their combat effectiveness, the MoD added.
Since the war started on February 24, Kyiv claims to have killed almost 22,000 Russian soldiers and destroyed military equipment worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.
Putin’s army has suffered a number of embarrassing losses — most notably the Moskva missile cruiser, thought to have been destroyed by Ukrainian missiles.
The seeming inability to prevent Ukraine from striking targets inside Russia with missiles is also likely causing red faces inside the Kremlin.
On Sunday Oleksiy Arestovich, another adviser to President Zelensky, said the situation in Mariupol was ‘very difficult’.
He said: Our defenders hold the defence under incredibly difficult circumstances. Our tropo sare also protecting citizens there.’
He said more than a thousand civilians, including the elderly and children, were hiding from the fighting in the Azovstal steel plant, guarded by Ukrainian forces.
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