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The following statements go around on the major social media networks. However, I have been unable to verify the statements are actually sourced.

Tweet by Ragip Soylu

Ragıp Soylu (Turkey Bureau Chief for MiddleEastEye):

Ukraine says Russian 74th motor rifle brigade has surrendered
— Reuters

Tweet by Volodymyr Omelyan

Volodymyr Omelyan (former minister of infrastructure Ukraine):

Platoon of Russian 74 Brigade surrendered to Ukrainian Armed Forces near Chernigov. They explained they didn’t expect that Kremlin sent them to occupy Ukraine and thought they are on ordinary military exercise… Russians love to occupy other states but don’t want to die

It has been picked up by Reddit, US Message Board, Metro, Spark and many others.

Many of those provide (indirect) sources, but whenever I try to follow those sources I reach a dead end. For example, I have found no mention of the 74th from Reuters. Pictures can be manipulated, so a screenshot of someone high in rank stating something is useless without the source of the text.

My Russian is quite terrible and my Ukrainian even worse, but surely something of this magnitude has a verifiable source in English?

Did the Russian 74th motorised rifle brigade surrender in February '22 to Ukrainian forces?

Oddthinking
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Mast
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    The situation is developing. Both sides are feeding propaganda. Maybe we can find out later when dust settles. Maybe this: https://skeptics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2868/handling-news-questions-about-current-events – pinegulf Feb 25 '22 at 09:18
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    A [platoon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platoon) as suggested in the second tweet is rather smaller than a [brigade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigade) – Henry Feb 25 '22 at 09:38
  • @Henry I noticed. I wondered if this is a translation error or indicative of the quality of the news. Perhaps this means only part of the brigade was involved, I do not know. – Mast Feb 25 '22 at 11:32
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    Several news sources are reporting that the Ukrainian ambassador to the US has claimed this, which raises it to one step above "s*** made up on the internet" but a long way off "confirmed as true" https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/24/russia-ukraine-attack-news/ – DJClayworth Feb 25 '22 at 15:33
  • Likewise in the British press, https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1571471/Russia-surrender-tank-Ukraine-Ambassador-US-Vladimir-putin-latest-vn But similarly sourced questions have been closed. Frankly, if you read the headlines in that paper, you could swear the Russian army is in a rout. – Fizz Feb 27 '22 at 03:00

1 Answers1

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Surrender confirmed - here is the announcement about it on Valeriy Zalushnyi’s (Ukraine Commander-in-Chief) official Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/100068564836091/posts/254902746805218/

It wasn't the full 74th brigade, it was a unit of it.

Alicia
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    Facebook seems like a strange place to announce something like this and it seems that other sources would still have it if it was confirmed. – Joe W Feb 25 '22 at 15:28