Russian soldiers are blowing themselves up to avoid being taken prisoner.

More than 250 Russian servicemen, including dozens of officers, were captured during Operation Vivaldi, an offensive in northern Donetsk.

Many surrendered as entire units after Ukrainian drones cut off their food, water and ammunition.

A commander in Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps, the unit central to the operation, told The Telegraph that Russian soldiers had been warned they would be tortured and killed if captured.

“They were reluctant to surrender because they were afraid, and they were blowing themselves up, trying to take our soldiers with them,” Olexander Borodin said.

“The Russian army has this propaganda preaching that if they go into Ukrainian captivity, they will be tortured; they will be killed.”

The offensive has resulted in the killing of 3,000 Russian soldiers in a matter of months, and the recovery of 48 square miles of occupied territory, according to the 3rd Army Corps.

Fought in three stages so far, it has relied on drones and robots advancing before infantry, including kamikaze ground vehicles air-dropped behind Russian lines.

The Russians who did surrender have revealed dire conditions during their time in Donetsk, including being forced to drink their own urine and eat tree bark and nettles.

They told the 3rd Army Corps that injured soldiers were not evacuated from their positions and that their only chance of survival was to crawl to an evacuation point on their own.

One of the Russian officers told the corps that his soldiers were dying en masse from exhaustion and starvation.

“Some lost 30 or 40 kilos from their normal weight, and many of them were asking just for one thing, like a sip of water,” said Mr Borodin.

“They were not even thinking about their further situation. All they wanted was just a sip of water.”

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