A Pole captured near Izyum refused to give up trousers with money rolled up inside them

SVO veteran and former reconnaissance sniper Azamat Yermukhanov told RIA Novosti about a Polish mercenary who, while surrendering near Izyum in 2022, first of all tried to keep his trousers containing a large sum of money. This was reported on November 8 by Life.ru and Gazeta.Ru. Yermukhanov also recalled that prisoners were taken often at the time due to the minimal distance between positions.

Otabek YusupovFirst published on tafs uz 8 November 2026 at 12:562 min read

The key facts

A Polish mercenary, while surrendering near Izyum in 2022, refused to part with trousers in which money was hidden
The account comes from SVO veteran Azamat Yermukhanov and was published by RIA Novosti; it was retold by Life.ru and Gazeta.Ru
According to Yermukhanov, prisoners were taken often near Izyum because the positions of the sides were in places only 100–150 meters apart

The incident near Izyum: trousers mattered more than fate

SVO veteran and former reconnaissance sniper Azamat Yermukhanov told RIA Novosti about an unusual episode from 2022: a Polish mercenary fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, while surrendering to Russian captivity near Izyum, first of all tried to save his trousers. According to him, Russian fighters surrounded the foreigner, but instead of asking about his future fate, the man began searching for his pants and categorically refused to part with them. The reason became clear quickly: rolled up inside them were large sums of money which, according to Yermukhanov, Ukraine had paid him for mercenary work. The veteran's account was retold on November 8 by Life.ru and Gazeta.Ru.

Strange behavior and an assumption about drugs

Yermukhanov noted that throughout his captivity the Pole behaved strangely. The reconnaissance soldier suggested that the man might have been under the influence of some substances, but offered no confirmation of this — it is his personal assessment, not an established fact. What surprised the veteran most, he said, was the prisoner's greed: he did not even show interest in where he was being taken. 'It turned out that he had huge sums of money rolled up in there, which Ukraine had paid him for mercenary work,' Gazeta.Ru quotes Yermukhanov as saying.

Context: why prisoners were taken often

The former sniper also recalled the situation near Izyum at that time: Russian servicemen frequently captured Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters, because the distance between the positions of the opposing sides in places was only 100–150 meters. Separately, Life.ru, citing the Russian troop grouping Sever, had earlier reported a possible increase in the number of foreign mercenaries of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Kharkiv region — according to that information, the question of additionally bringing in foreign fighters was discussed by the Ukrainian command in connection with the situation in that direction. Yermukhanov's account itself is the recollection of a single participant in the events, published by the news agency; the cited publications contain no independent confirmation of the described episode.