A knock at the door

A soldier from the 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade found himself in a tense standoff near the village of Hryshyne according to United24Media.

The fighter, operating under the callsign Alex, was sheltering inside a dugout alongside a wounded comrade.

Alex suddenly heard Russian voices outside the bunker. The approaching troops called out into the dark, asking if the men inside were friendly.

Instead of firing, Alex decided to play along. He simply answered back and invited the unsuspecting men inside.

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Walking into a trap

The bizarre encounter unfolded quickly once the enemy soldiers stepped into the shelter. They sat down and began chatting. The men were completely unaware they had just walked right into a Ukrainian trap.

“I hear someone talking. They ask: ‘Friendly?’ I say: ‘Yeah, friendly,’” Alex said in a story shared by the brigade on social media. “I let them in. My rifle was next to me. They sat down and started talking in Russian. At first, they didn’t understand who they were dealing with.”

Eventually, the reality of the situation dawned on the newcomers. They chose to surrender peacefully rather than put up a fight.

The long walk back

Alex stripped the captives of their communication gear and identification. Once everything was secure, he contacted his unit to figure out their next move.

“We took their radios, took all their phones, took all their documents immediately. I reported it to our guys,” Alex explained. “About an hour later, we were told to move out. Our wounded guy and these two. It was slippery, mud everywhere. They kept falling. We walked for three days.”

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The grueling journey finally ended when the group reached friendly lines.

Ready for a swap

The brigade took pride in the unusual capture. In a public statement, the unit noted how easily the Russian troops were fooled.

“The enemy still doesn’t understand where they ended up,” the brigade wrote. “They struggle to tell their own from us, but we can tell the difference just fine.”

These two captives could soon return home. Media reports suggest they might join a massive prisoner exchange currently being organized by the United States.