The Ukrainian police say they have detained four Russian soldiers who surrendered to villagers and claimed they did not know they were part of an invading force and thought they were taking part in an exercise.

The police in Mykolaiv, a southern Ukrainian city near the Black Sea, said in a statement issued yesterday (Sunday, 27th February) and obtained by Newsflash: “In the region of Mykolaiv, (Russian) members of a sabotage and reconnaissance group surrendered to local residents and were handed over to the police.

“Four soldiers, formerly of the 33rd Regiment from the (south-western Russian) region of Volgograd, aged 18 to 29, laid down their arms and surrendered to locals after the battle and defeat of their column on the border with the Kherson region.”

The detainees claimed they went to take part in exercises, but then the Russian command had instead ordered them to launch the offensive in the Ukraine.

The police stated: “They said they thought they had come to train, but when they saw what was really happening, they decided to give up.

“Documents were confiscated from the saboteurs and now the mentioned persons are being carefully investigated, all the circumstances are being clarified.”

The police added: “In general, the law and order situation in the region is under the control of law enforcement officers.”

In the footage, one of the captured soldiers says: “We came to the Crimea for the first exercises. The first night we just drove all day, it turns out, in the BMP (tank). On the second day, when the BMP stopped, we were standing on the bridge where a city had been burned down. As we later learned, it was Kherson.”

According to the Ukrainian news site Glavcom, Russian forces have lost 27 planes, 26 helicopters, 146 tanks, 706 armoured combat vehicles, 49 guns, one Buk missile system, four Grads, and two ships in three days since the invasion began.