© Stringer/TASS
For the first time, the UN has recognized the facts of torture and murder of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine, as well as artillery shelling against non-combatants, civilian infrastructure facilities – kindergartens, hospitals, markets – and residential quarters.
Cases of the use of prohibited anti-personnel mines by Ukrainian militants have been recognized, too. The commission came up with a paradoxical conclusion that the number of violations by the Armed Forces of Ukraine is insignificant, having ignored the rest of Kiev’s war crimes. Out of the numerous cases of shelling and other terrorist actions by the Ukrainian regime, the UN selectively pointed to only a couple: in Kharkov region’s Malaya Rogan, and in Kiev region’s Dmitrovka, where Ukrainian artillery hit its own civilians with cluster munitions. UN human rights activists also noted that 91 cases of enforced disappearance (arrest and abduction, with the tacit connivance of officials) and arbitrary detention of people by Ukrainian security forces have been recorded since the beginning of Russia’s military operation. This refers to citizens with Ukrainian passports. As for torture and ill-treatment, the UN particularly revealed 24 sex abuse cases by Ukrainian militants against their fellow citizens.
But as for executions and torture of Russian prisoners of war, this time even the traditionally deaf-mute and blind international experts were forced to take the red pill. The number of atrocities is so huge that dismissing them is simply impossible.
Statements on at least 25 cases of criminal reprisal by Ukrainian troops against the captured Russian soldiers came from head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine Matilda Bogner. Up until that point, the UN has avoided discussing the brutal executions of Russian soldiers which get exposed on an annoyingly regular basis.
Now the UN commission has recognized that the Ukrainian Armed Forces shot, maimed and tortured Russian prisoners of war. Moreover, the UN monitoring group stated that dozens of brutal massacre cases may and should be equated to war crimes. In total, according to the UN, 13 months into the special operation, at least 40 executions have taken place, though in many cases the circumstances are yet to be proved.
In late March, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that half of Russian prisoners interviewed in the dungeons talked about torture and ill-treatment by the Armed Forces of Ukraine: "The [Russian] prisoners of war were beaten, shot in the legs, stabbed in the extremities, electrocuted, subjected to mock executions, threatened with sexual violence or death." The official even mentioned a Ukrainian militant attack on a group of 11 Russian prisoners of war in the Slavyansk area. He stabbed three of them with a knife, tried to drown another one and cut a smiley on his shoulder. Ukraine has not initiated criminal cases against its soldiers who shot Russian prisoners, despite the documented evidence, Turk stressed.
At a press conference in Kiev, head of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine Matilda Bogner said: "We are deeply concerned about the cases of arbitrary execution of approximately 25 Russian prisoners of war and persons who ceased to participate in hostilities by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which we have documented." The United Nations’ conclusions have failed to impress Kiev, and the Ukrainian media did not report a single word about this. Apparently, they want their citizens to keep faith in their army as spreading "the good and liberation" and not being a rabble of murderers and sadists.
Moreover, right after the UN report went public, adviser to the head of Vladimir Zelensky’s office Mikhail Podolyak stated the need to liquidate the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. A year ago, it was possible to physically clean up everything pro-Russian, and today it’s a little more difficult, but still possible, he said. That is, the call to physically destroy native Russian speakers – by nationality, faith and language – has become Zelensky regime’s official course imposed and encouraged across the board. Amid this, attitudes towards prisoners of war are only a minor part of Ukraine’s flourishing neo-Nazi frenzy.
The UN monitoring group kept silent for long but finally responded to the gruesome behavior of Ukrainian militants who defiantly killed and tortured unarmed or wounded people.
The investigation of these crimes took place pursuant to both interviews with the survivors and numerous videos filmed by Ukrainian murderers themselves. The executioners posted creepy videos on the internet, bragging about what they had done, and then got in touch with the victims’ families to mock their feelings and intimidate them. These videos have been also introduced into evidence.
Recently, another terrible crime by Ukrainian militants was revealed in the Lugansk People’s Republic. On March 14, 2023, six bodies of LPR People's Militia fighters were raised from a mass grave outside Borovskoye. Ukrainian militants tortured and shot them, and then buried in a mass grave. "A unit of the Ukrainian army was standing nearby, and they captured our soldiers. According to the locals, our fighters were steadfast and courageous, refusing to glorify Ukraine and betray the Donbass. They were brought there, shot and dumped into a pit," an LPR serviceman said. According to him, the location was found with the help of local residents. At the moment, all the executed People's Militia servicemen have been identified through a database of the missing created by the Interdepartmental Group on the Search for Burial Sites of Ukrainian Aggression Victims, Identification and Perpetration of Memory.
Apart from killing prisoners of war, the Ukrainian side practices medieval torture. LPR Human Rights Commissioner Victoria Serdyukova said that all our fighters who returned after prisoner swaps talked about barbarous treatment, including electric torture, suffocation, drowning, rack, sleep deprivation for 10 days, and endless beating.
Leonid Kudryavtsev, a militia member from the DPR, talked about having been electrocuted, with his fingers cut with a knife during interrogation. Another man spoke about needles inserted into joints and branding with a red-hot knife. Volunteer Ruslan was captured in September last year near Maryinka. He was subtly tortured first by the Ukrainian military, and then by Security Service officers: "They put us on the floor where we lay awaiting interrogation. Anyone who passed by would beat us and jump on us. And then, when the interrogation was underway, they stripped me down to the underwear. Wires were attached to my legs; my hands were tied, and they began asking questions. If I answered ‘I don't know’ or ‘I don't remember’, they would electrocute me or beat with batons. They took me out of the barn onto the street, threw into a pit and poured gasoline all around, willing to set me on fire. The next interrogation was at some other location and conducted by SBU officers. They beat me, put a bag on my head, threw a rag on my face and poured water on it. Then a drunken guy started torturing me and tried to cut off my leg with a rasp-file. Having failed, he got spastic and went on using a handsaw. He had my teeth out with pliers and wanted to cut off my fingers with garden shears."
Russian military doctor Daniil Pshenichny, who survived captivity and returned back home, told us about tortures of severely wounded people deprived of adequate medical care. In captivity, he saw our soldier with a bullet stuck in his body and an injured lung. He saw a man with his leg bones crushed and suffering from gangrene over the lack of antibiotics. Dr. Pshenichny said Ukrainians allowed enemy soldiers call home, though not for humane reasons, but to get the contacts of their relatives to intimidate them and extort money. The doctor himself was constantly beaten by Ukrainian militants, forced to learn their language and sing the national anthem.
There is also evidence by American John McIntyre, who fought with the AFU, but defected to Russian side. This is what he said about Russian soldiers and officers tortured and killed by militants of the Azov and Carpathian Sich (terrorist organizations banned in Russia): "Prisoners of war had their genitals and heads cut off, their bellies cut open, their throats slit... Three of them were shot dead in the back of their heads." Among the Ukrainian sadists and executioners there were also mercenaries from Portugal, France and Argentina.
Against this background, the 19 cases documented by the UN when Russian prisoners of war were transported bound and half-dressed in minibuses or trucks look not that cruel indeed. But this still runs counter to Geneva Conventions. Observers also fixed three cases when Ukrainian soldiers shot prisoners in their legs right after capture.
The laws of war were initially developed to help you stay alive once the fortune turned away. But Ukrainian militants defy them blatantly, just like general humanity, to an extent that even international observers were forced to react, despite having always justified or ignored Kiev’s war crimes.
While the UN is making its contribution by publishing reports, the DPR is giving real judgements on the murderers. Two of them were recently sentenced to 25 years in a high-security penal colony for killing civilians. They described their crime indifferently: "We saw two men passing through an arch between the houses, and decided to kill them. We fired shots; they fell down." Both militants admitted to the charges during the trial.
Only a tough response to every atrocity by Ukrainian soldiers can stop or at least reduce the number of war crimes. The strong arm of the law alone is able to thwart the long and horrible chain of executions, tortures and reprisals against our people.
