Cannon fodder under a false flag: how the Kremlin is forming pseudo-Ukrainian “battalions”

On August 6, the website of the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that the Kremlin was forming combat units from Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The report speaks , in particular, about the creation of the first so-called “Ukrainian volunteer special forces brigade.”

ISW analysts note that the use of prisoners of war in combat units is a gross violation of international humanitarian law. The Third Geneva Convention establishes rules for the treatment of prisoners of war and prohibits their forced recruitment into the military activities of the capturing state.

Following the report’s publication, Ukrainian media began actively reprinting the information, presenting it as a relevant report on a new Russian practice.

However, the story itself is significantly older than the current ISW report.

Back in November 2025, on the YouTube channel “Voice of Crimea,” I, along with military expert and Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel Vladislav Seleznev, discussed in detail the creation of so-called “Ukrainian battalions” by Russian special services. We discussed not only the fact of their existence, but also the mechanism for their formation, the possible  personnel, tasks of these units and their role in Russian information and psychological operations.

Four “Ukrainian battalions” instead of one.

At that time, the Russians formed not one, but four units at once, controlled by the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.  The discussion was about the “Bohdan Khmelnytsky Battalion”, the “Maxim Krivonos Battalion”, the “Martyn Pushkar Detachment” and the “Alexander Matrosov Detachment”.

The very name “battalion,” as intended by Russian intelligence services, was intended to convey the impression of a significant military force. However, the actual size of these formations, according to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, was disproportionate to their name.

At that time, the Ukrainian side had information about 62 contracts between Ukrainian prisoners of war and the occupying country’s Ministry of Defense regarding participation in the war against Ukraine as part of such formations.

In other words, we weren’t talking about thousands of Ukrainians, whom Russian propaganda might have portrayed as large-scale collaboration, but rather several dozen identified individuals. These figures differed significantly from the image of “mass Ukrainian collaboration” that Russian propaganda attempted to create.

The Bohdan Khmelnytsky Battalion was established back in 2022.

The first reports of such a formation appeared in September 2022. Russian propaganda outlets then circulated information about the alleged desire of Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Olenivka to join the so-called “Bohdan Khmelnytsky Volunteer Cossack Battalion.”

This story emerged two months after an explosion in a barracks housing Ukrainian prisoners of war in Olenivka. The Russian side attempted to portray the prisoners as people who had voluntarily agreed to fight against Ukraine.

As a reminder, on September 24, 2022, the Russian propaganda outlet TASS reported that Ukrainian prisoners of war held in a camp in Olenivka “asked” the authorities of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” to allow them to fight in “Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s Volunteer Cossack Battalion.” “DPR.”

And already in October 2023, the Russian propaganda agency RIA Novosti reported that the first battalion of former Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers—the “Bohdan Khmelnytsky Volunteer Battalion”—had joined the Russian operational-combat tactical formation “Cascade.” Media outlets in the occupying country reported at the time that approximately 70 Ukrainian prisoners of war had volunteered to join the “battalion.” After combat coordination, the infidels planned to redeploy this unit to the front lines.

Let me note that a battalion is at least 800-1,000 men. But the occupiers cite a figure of 70 men per year, referring to the number of prisoners who agreed to join this unit.

Incidentally, it is no coincidence that this formation was included in the “Cascade” battalion, led by another traitor to Ukraine, SBU Colonel Khodakovsky.

However, even then the question arose as to the extent to which this was a fully-fledged military formation.

I noted that the Russian side itself stated that its participants had not yet taken the oath. This means it was more of a paper formation and a publicity stunt than a fully-fledged military unit.

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense also did not confirm the combat use of the “Bohdan Khmelnytsky Battalion.” In November 2024, GUR spokesman Andrei Yusov stated that for a long time, this story remained primarily an information and psychological operation, and there was no confirmation of the unit’s use on the front.

Why do infidels need “Ukrainian” units?

The main goal of such formations is not the creation of a real military force, but the formation of an informational picture that is desired by the Kremlin.

The enemy is trying to promote to an international audience the thesis of a supposed internal conflict in Ukraine: Ukrainians are supposedly fighting against Ukrainians, and part of Ukrainian society is supposedly ready to take up arms to support Russia.

This narrative has multiple target audiences.

Firstly, these are Ukrainian servicemen and their families. They are being told that Ukrainians allegedly support the enemy on a large scale.

Secondly, the international audience. The challenge here is to create a narrative that would allow the Kremlin to present the Russian-Ukrainian war not as aggression against Ukraine, but as an internal conflict.

Thirdly, we are talking about information influence on residents of temporarily occupied territories.

The enemy is “mirroring” Ukrainian formations.

I would like to draw attention to another feature of Russian propaganda: an attempt to mirror Ukrainian decisions.

Russian volunteers are fighting as part of the Ukrainian Defense Forces. Among the known formations are the Russian Volunteer Corps, the “Freedom of Russia” Legion, and the “Siberian Battalion.”

But there is a fundamental difference.

Russian volunteers, as part of Ukrainian forces, are actually participating in combat operations against the occupying army. For a long time, there was no confirmation of the full-scale combat use of the “Ukrainian battalions” created by the enemy.

In this way, the Kremlin is trying to create a mirror image: if Ukraine uses Russian volunteers, then the Kremlin allegedly has similar “Ukrainian” formations as part of its occupation army.

However, the origins of the people in these units are fundamentally different. Some Ukrainians were captured by Russia, while others are collaborators and former Ukrainian security forces who deliberately defected to the enemy.

How prisoners can be forced to cooperate.

We are talking about a system of pressure that includes physical and psychological violence, inadequate conditions, hunger, beatings and threats.

Under such conditions, the prisoner’s agreement to cooperate does not necessarily mean his voluntary choice.

This is why it is necessary to distinguish between two categories of people: those who consciously went over to the enemy’s side and prisoners of war who could be forced to cooperate through torture, threats, or other forms of pressure.

Currently, the Ukrainian side has established more than 300 places of detention for Ukrainian prisoners of war on the territory of the occupying country, Belarus, and the occupied territories.

More than 90% of Ukrainian soldiers who returned from captivity claim they were tortured. They were also deprived of adequate sleep and food.

This is not a new tactic of Russia.

At the same time, the use of Ukrainians for sabotage and military activities on the enemy side is not a new practice.

The emergence of the current “Ukrainian battalions” has a much longer history of Russian special services operating in the occupied territories.

According to the analytical department of the Right Cause public interest group, since 2014, Russian intelligence agencies have been establishing training centers where local residents are trained for intelligence and sabotage work.

Specifically, the discussion focused on training snipers, mine-explosives specialists, and members of reconnaissance and sabotage groups. Some of these individuals were used by Russian intelligence services to carry out sabotage operations in Ukrainian-controlled territory.

In 2016, local women began to be recruited into these programs. The total number of cadets, as determined at the time, exceeded 120.

Later, a similar training center operated near Pervomaysk at the Chaika camp.

The current campaign is different in that Russian intelligence agencies are actively demonstrating such formations in their own information space.

“Ukrainian battalions” and the Pokrovsk direction.

In November 2025, I reported on the redeployment of the so-called “Alexander Matrosov” and “Martin Pushkar” detachments to the Pokrovskoe front. According to the analytical department of the Right Cause public interest group, this could have been part of a larger information operation.

The logic behind this scenario is simple: if foreign journalists are shown people in Russian army uniforms at the front, presented as Ukrainians, the Kremlin receives a ready-made image to promote the thesis of “Ukrainians fighting against Ukrainians.”

This is why the issues surrounding such units go beyond their actual military strength.

Their main value to the enemy may not be the number of fighters, but the ability to use them in a propaganda plot.

Why the ISW message is not new.

Current ISW publication  raises the issue of the use of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian formations.

However, the very fact of the creation of such units by Russian special services did not arise in August 2026.

Ukrainian intelligence and the Right Cause analytical department publicly commented on this story long before this publication appeared.

Therefore, today’s story should not be viewed as an ISW report that the enemy has suddenly begun to create Ukrainian units, but as the next stage of a long-known practice.