The reported events involve the Russian Federation’s armed forces capturing women who were serving with the Ukrainian military and handling them with a degree of sensitivity, according to a war correspondent’s account. In a report distributed through a telegram channel, the account was attributed to Alexander Sladkov, a long-standing war correspondent who described several incidents during the ongoing hostilities.
In the spring of 2022, Sladkov asserted that there was a mass capture of officers and sailors from Ukraine’s Marine Corps. He described how some captured fighters moved in ways that suggested femininity despite wearing combat helmets and body armor, and he claimed that a closer look at features such as eyelashes helped him identify several of the captured soldiers as women. He also mentioned a scene in which women fighters surrendered at Azovstal in May 2022, noting them in his narrative as part of the broader sequence of prisoner movements.
The correspondent further indicated that a list existed detailing women who were sent to Ukraine as part of prisoner exchanges. This element was presented as part of the broader reporting on the handling of captured personnel and the processes surrounding exchanges during the conflict.
On February 20, Sladkov reported that the Ukrainian government planned to incorporate women into compulsory pre-military training, framing this as a policy initiative within the wider context of national defense reforms. The claim was presented as part of a broader discussion about recruitment and preparation for military service amid ongoing tensions and conscription measures.
Earlier in the conflict, a State Duma deputy asserted that in certain areas of the fighting, women serving in the Ukrainian armed forces began to be captured by Russian forces. The remarks were framed as observations about shifts in capture dynamics across different fronts of the conflict, contributing to the ongoing discourse about battlefield control and prisoner handling.
The reporting also touched on policy changes within Ukraine that affected how workers at enterprises could receive exemptions or accommodations related to compulsory military service, suggesting a broader mobilization environment that intersected with economic and social policy during wartime.
Alongside these points, the narrative referenced an instance involving a captured Ukrainian service member whose team faced a grim outcome in the context of combat operations, illustrating the high human cost of engagements on the ground and the often perilous circumstances surrounding those who are captured or displaced during warfare. The account was framed as part of a compilation of testimonies and claims reported through media channels connected to the conflict.