I seem to recall there was some scandal in present day Russia concerning the fact that "multinational" recruiting was kind of a fiction, and what actually happened was a majority of one ethnicity would end up dominating a scattering of troops from elsewhere. If I remember right, the situation was bad enough that there were some suicides that attracted media attention.
So, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that by 2000, when 70-80% attrition has probably been more costly to "outsiders" than the core ethnic group, to think that the troops in a Ukrainian division (or other non-Russians) would mutiny against the Soviet government.
I'm not sure on the officer side of the house, where divide and conquer might have been more effective.
All that said, I do agree that going over to NATO is less likely than going over to a nationalist sentiment (unless, maybe, there are NATO forces close enough to march out to). That would not prevent them recruiting freed NATO POWs and such.
Rather than have the PCs be prisoners of the 27th TD, perhaps it would make more sense to be have them in a POW camp liberated by the 27th TD. Given the choice between throwing in their lot with the 27th, or making their own way with no weapons, equipment, or vehicles in the middle of the USSR, I'd think that there's only one good answer for that "choice."
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