Among the prisoners of war exchanged on May 25, the Russian side returned Anatoliy Taranyanko, a former soldier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces born in 1973. He had voluntarily surrendered, betrayed his comrades, and turned his gun on them to cooperate with the enemy, but was ultimately abandoned by those individuals.
Taranyanko is from the Poltava region and has been considered a prisoner of war since he joined the enemy in 2021.
Due to the rarity of such cases, Russian media extensively covered the incident at the time, portraying Taranyanko as a "hero," publishing numerous articles claiming that he had been abused by a sergeant and deprived of food.
On January 28, 2021, during his service with the tank brigade in Donbas, Taranyanko found an opportunity to contact the so-called "Donetsk People's Militia" and subsequently defected. It is claimed that he burned his infantry fighting vehicle (BMP) before defecting and even demanded a knife upon reaching the enemy side, threatening to mutilate his former Ukrainian comrades-in-arms.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1833127166095435/
Disclaimer: This article solely represents the author's viewpoint.