when they put me in prison, i heard they were recruiting. serve six months and they pardon you, he tells me. so he signed up with storm z, a unit made up of convicts attached to the russian defense ministry. after only two weeks of basic training, he was shipped off to the frontlines near bakhmut. [ gunfire ] after days of intense shelling, with only rainwater and no food, he heard ukrainian troops outside his foxhole. he assumed they would execute him. i thought that was the end, he recalls. i switched my rifle to single shot mode and thought, i ll shoot myself, but i couldn t. this video, shot by soldiers of ukraine s assault brigade, shows the intense moments when he and his comrade surrendered. the ukrainian troops told them, unlike russians, we don t kill prisoners. we spoke to him and another soldier in a jail in eastern grain, concealing their faces and not using their real names. the third assault brigade granted us access to the p.o.w.s, and two of their soldie