Russian Troops 'Surrendering' after Getting Trapped in Vovchansk Complex

Several hundred Russian troops may be surrounded by enemy forces in Ukraine's northern city of Vovchansk, according to recent reports.

Videos posted on social media over the weekend appear to support claims that dozens of Russian troops have surrendered to Ukraine in the Kharkiv region after an attempted assault on a chemical facility in Vovchansk.

The footage and reports raise further questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to open another front in Kharkiv and the wider prospects of the Northern offensive.

"This video shows that at least 24 Russian soldiers have been taken POW. Around 400 soldiers were holed up in the complex consisting of 20+ buildings," Visegrad24, a pro-Ukraine Eastern European news outlet, posted on X on Sunday, June 16.

"The russians are surrounded here with zero chances of evacuation or reinforcements," Ukraine's AzovSouth battalion's official channel wrote on X on Saturday, adding a map of the chemical plant's location.

The videos, which Newsweek is unable to verify independently, would add weight to frontline reports of major problems encountered by Putin's forces as they seek to establish a "buffer zone" in Ukraine's northern region bordering Russia.

A Russian milblogger's Telegram post on June 14 appeared to suggest that an unspecified number of Russian servicemen were isolated in the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant, possibly encircled by Ukrainian forces.

"With regards to Vovchansk, the situation at the aggregate plant remains unchanged, with some of our boys still isolated inside it, with no way to break through to them," Russian milblogger Anatoly Radov, also known by his Telegram handle Motopatriot, allegedly wrote in a since-deleted post.

The milblogger, according to a daily update by the Institute for Study of War, later claimed that Ukrainian sources exaggerated his June 14 post, and clarified that it referenced frontline reports that Ukrainian forces temporarily blocked Russian logistics in Vovchansk, not that Ukrainian forces threatened to encircle Russian forces.

Other pro-war Russian channels and bloggers have also dismissed reports of encirclement.

Fierce combat has been reported in and around the Vovchansk area as Russians attempt to establish a foothold in the Kharkiv town, with other milbloggers comparing the fighting to Russia's bloody sieges of Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

Recent estimates indicate Russia may have lost around 20,000 troops in the Battle for Bakhmut—many of whom were ex-cons drafted into the Wagner mercenary force—more than all of the Soviet losses in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

In footage posted by Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade last week, groups of Russian troops appear to emerge from the trenches with their hands held over their heads. Later the same group of captives can be seen sitting in front of the camera and answering question about their allegedly failed offensive.

"We were driving a UAZ to storm, we drove into a village where we were fired upon; out of nine people, I was the only one left alive," one soldier says.

"In just an hour, 60 people killed," another purported Russian captive says.

Vovchansk has seen some of the heaviest shelling and direct combat between Russian and Ukrainian troops since Moscow's draw-out and casualty-heavy assaults of Bakhmut and Avdiivka in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

"In the Kharkiv direction, one of the most intense battles of the [Putin's special military operation] takes place, which can be compared with Bakhmut and Avdiivka," Zhivov Z, another Russian milblogger, wrote on Telegram.

"Our air forces attack the enemy with more than a hundred FABs [gliding bombs] per day. Mainly in the rear areas and concentrations of troops. This is good.

"The bad news is that the enemy has a lot of his own guided HAMMER bombs, which also pose a serious problem. It's not easy to fight them.

"I'm still waiting that the maneuvers near Kharkiv are a brilliant plan of the General Staff for a diversionary strike," the Russian war commentator concluded, in what appeared to be an explicit jibe at Russia's military command.

In recent comments about the Northern front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Russian losses during its Kharkiv offensive were eight times higher than Ukraine's.

Meanwhile, in its official update, the Russian defense ministry said Ukraine lost nearly 12,000 troops in the first week of June.

Newsweek is unable to independently verify either side's casualty figures, and has reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment.

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