Over 12% of captured Russians do not even have secondary education – Coordination Headquarters

Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War conducted a sociological study among the occupiers. More than 12% of the interviewed prisoners indicated that they did not even have a secondary education.

Source: Andrii Yusov, representative of Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, during a briefing at Military Media Center

Quote: "More than 12.2% of [Russian] prisoners of war did not even receive a secondary education. This indicator is even difficult to imagine in European and Ukrainian realities!

These are adult men, often under the age of 50, who basically do not have any education. One can only imagine what categories and values they are able to operate with," he said.

Andrii Yusov added that only 11% have higher education. A total of 57% of respondents indicated that they received special secondary education. He noted that the largest number of people with higher education are citizens forcibly mobilised from the territory of temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.

More than 40% of the prisoners were members of the Russian army, and a large proportion were forcibly mobilised from the "people's police" of the "L/DPR" [self-proclaimed and non-recognised formations in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts – ed.]; 12.5% of prisoners are Wagnerites and only 2.2% are soldiers of the Russian Guard. 

The representative of Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War emphasised that 40% of those interviewed indicated that they surrendered voluntarily.

The sociological survey was conducted in April 2023, 400 prisoners voluntarily participated in it.

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