“Please Take Me Prisoner”: Russian Soldier’s Handwritten Plea Leads to Safe Surrender

A Russian soldier surrendered to Ukrainian forces in the Kharkiv region after covering a house with handwritten signs asking to be taken prisoner, according to Militarnyi on December 31.

In a statement carried by the outlet, Ukraine’s 16th Army Corps said the soldier wrote on cardboard in Russian: “Please take me prisoner, I want to live.” The corps said Ukrainian troops treated it as a pre-New Year appeal and acted on it.

After spotting the soldier, the drone operator gave him explicit instructions on how to surrender safely and what to do next.

The corps said the incident took place in the settlement of Lyman in the Kharkiv region. It said pilots from the “Phoenix” drone team of the “Volia” battalion located the soldier and then provided him with detailed instructions on how to surrender safely.

The 16th Army Corps said the detention was carried out jointly with the “Shkval” special unit of the 57th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, and that the Russian soldier was successfully detained.

Earlier, it was reported that Ukrainian forces have taken more than 10,000 Russian soldiers prisoner since the full‑scale invasion began, with continued increases recorded through 2025, and demographic data from Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” project showing surrender trends and POW statistics.

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