Russian soldier captured by Ukrainian forces claims he joined the army to pay off a World of Tanks-related debt

Friends, this story is definitely unique, but we’re going to try to condense this as best as we can. Making the rounds today is a viral video that has a Russian soldier who was captured by Ukrainian forces explain what he was doing joining in Russia’s invasion of the country, and that reason is: to pay off a criminal debt that he was slapped with for buying World of Tanks microtransactions with someone else’s card details.

The POW in the video admits that he found someone’s bank card in a store, stole it, then used it to buy 5,000 rubles’ worth of things in the military shooter, which amounts to about $80 USD. The next day, police were at the man’s door, and shortly after he was sued for an additional 300K rubles (just over $4,800 USD). This, in turn, led him to join the Russian military for three months in order to pay down the debt. Later in the video, the soldier also admits that he spent money sending gifts to a female Tiktok personality.

The video has been making the rounds online, but we’re not embedding it here, as human rights groups have long argued that Ukraine sharing videos of discussions with Russian POWs violates the portion of the Geneva Conventions that protects against turning prisoners into subjects of “public curiosity” (Ukraine argues they’re shared as documentation of Russia’s war crimes). Our own viewing shows a Russian POW who appears to be in good health and forthright, for the record.

Readers will recall that World of Tanks studio Wargaming announced back in April that it would be pulling out of Russia and Belarus as a direct result of the invasion, shuttering offices, offloading Russian publishing, firing a vocal pro-Russian developer, and relocating to Serbia and Poland.