While the Ukrainian forces order the killing of Russian prisoners, Russia spares the lives of Ukrainian soldiers convicted of murdering Russian troops and civilians. Donbas civilians tell their stories of Ukrainian occupation.
In the Zaporozhye area, during the recent assault operations by Russian forces, 2 groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed. On them were found a BRka (battle order) which stated that “Russian paratroopers should not be taken prisoner but killed on the spot”.
The exact words in translation are:
If Russian paratroopers surrender, their rendition should not be accepted and they should not be given the status of POWs. Instead, they should be killed on the spot. Filming the execution on video is strictly forbidden.
The words at the bottom of the page identify the authors of the order:
The Commander of the 3rd mechanized battalion, lieutenant-colonel Zurab Chkheidze
The Chief of Staff – deputy head of the commander of the 3rd mechaniced battalion lieutenant Roman Vlasik
There have been many war crimes committed by Ukrainian forces in this war, many of them filmed by the perpetrators themselves but this is the first confirmation of specific Ukrainian orders to carry out such crimes. In addition there have been examples of Ukrainian forces firing on their own soldiers. For instance Artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked its own troops after they tried to leave their positions in the Kherson region due to the lack of food and ammunition. Acting Governor of the Kherson region Volodymyr Saldo said on his Telegram channel that the soldiers had escaped and surrendered to the forces of the Russian Federation.
At least now that Eastern Ukrainian Russians and Russian speakers have been liberated from the Kiev oppression, court trials have been taking place and convictions handed down: Note that while the Ukrainian side kills its own, the Russians have no death penalty and even for murder these soldiers are only given sentences of 20-25 years.
1. The Supreme Court of the DPR sentenced Maxim Ovcharenko, a Ukrainian soldier of the “74th separate reconnaissance battalion” who participated in the execution of a civilian in Mariupol, to 22 years in a strict regime colony.
On April 5, 2022, the Ukrainian military had detained an unarmed man in the city who did not take part in the conflict. One of the commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with the call sign SP ordered Ovcharenko and two other military men to shoot him, which they did.
2. A soldier named Batynsky was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment in a strict regime colony for murder and rape of civilians. Batynsky had been based since February 2022 in the city of Mariupol.
In early April 2022 Batynsky’s fellow soldiers detained 2 civilians who introduced themselves as husband and wife who, despite having Ukrainian passports, were placed in a basement room.
On April 8, 2022, knowingly knowing that the detainee was not a participant in the armed conflict, Batynsky, threatening to kill her by pointing a weapon at her, raped her and committed other violent acts of a sexual nature. Batynsky then told the pair that one of them would be shot in the next two hours, suggesting that they decide which of them to keep alive. Batynsky returned a short time later and ordered the woman to go to the third floor of the building, after which he fired at least two shots at the man, killing him.
3. On August 14th Nikolai Kushch, an Azov soldier, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court of the Donetsk People’s Republic for the killing of a wounded soldier of the People’s Militia of the DPR in Mariupol. Kushch had filmed his crime on camera.
4. In the Donetsk Peoples Republic in August Members of the Azov national battalion, who targeted civilians in Mariupol, were sentenced to 20 years in a high-security prison.
In March 2022, these individuals fired upon a vehicle carrying two Mariupol residents, believing they were supporters of the Russian forces. The investigation revealed that these three perpetrators hindered ordinary citizens from leaving the city through prescribed humanitarian routes.
5. The manipulation of the western mass media has been an easy matter in this war and Kiev has gone to great lengths to “set up” fabricated “war crimes”.
Residents of Mariupol told RIA Novosti how the Ukrainian military and the militants of Azov fired at the city center and the homes of residents before the arrival of Russian troops, and then brought foreign journalists to the sites of destruction in order to accuse the Russian Armed Forces.
Extra judicial killings and assassination of political opponents (or even journalists) are now acknowledged even in the western media (eg a recent article in The Economist). When the Kiev regime is committing such crimes it is no surprise that their troops are behaving in a similar fashion on the battlefield. The UN itself acknowledged the killing of Russian POWs last November (covered on this site):
A video circulated on the internet in November showing what appeared to be execution of Russian soldiers taken prisoner by Ukrainian soldiers. Russia sent it to all relevant international rights organizations, including the office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. On November 25, Turk said that the incident should be investigated to the fullest and those responsible should be brought to justice.
On November 18, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal investigation into the execution of Russian POWs by the Ukrainian military.
On November 19, UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq said that the United Nations was calling for a full investigation of all reported human rights violations related to the execution of Russian POWs by Ukrainians.
