Russian troops displayed the Soviet Union flag as they continued their unprovoked attack on Ukraine.
Video posted online Wednesday by Russia's Ministry of Defense showed tanks and armored vehicles with the Soviet flags — red with a golden hammer and sickle, and a gold-bordered red star in its upper canton — slowly driving in single file along deserted roads, The New York Post reported.
Many Russian experts have said that President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is part of a desire to reform the Soviet Union, a socialist state that dissolved in 1991.
"The Russian Armed Forces units continue to take control of the Ukrainian regions occupied by nationalists within special military operation," the ministry said alongside the video, the Post reported.
The vehicles were said to be en route to a "designated area," with no indication given about their exact location.
For some European countries watching Russia's brutal war in Ukraine, there are fears that they could be next.
Western officials say the most vulnerable countries could be those who aren't members of NATO or the European Union, and thus alone and unprotected — including Ukraine's neighbor Moldova and Russia's neighbor Georgia, both of them formerly part of the Soviet Union — along with the Balkan states of Bosnia and Kosovo.
Russia admitted Wednesday that soldiers drafted into the armed forces have been sent to Ukraine – with some having been captured by Ukrainian troops.
Putin vowed as recently as Tuesday that Russian forces only would rely on professional troops and draftees wouldn't be deployed.
"Unfortunately there have been detected several instances of the presence of conscript-service military personnel," Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, the Post reported.
On Tuesday, the U.S. estimated that between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops had been killed so far in the war in Ukraine, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Scott Berrier testified at Congress' annual worldwide threats hearing.
According to Axios, the estimated number of Russian casualties is much higher than Russia expected, U.S. intelligence officials said.
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