A Russian soldier, together with his face blurred, poses in entrance of the our bodies of three Ukrainian troopers mendacity face down in a pool of blood, their palms clasped behind their heads. The picture, shared by the Russian Rusich unit on its Telegram channel, is accompanied by an announcement for a contest: “The first three folks to submit a photograph of prisoners who’ve clearly been erased from existence will obtain a cryptocurrency reward.” It is a battle crime, yet one more within the relentless battle that the Kremlin descibes as a “particular navy operation.” This time, nevertheless, it has sparked a contest that Ukrainian forces have additionally joined.
The {photograph} was initially circulated by different Russian ultranationalist channels final week. Then, a fighter from the Russian Volunteer Corps, a unit that helps Ukraine and fights in opposition to the Kremlin, noticed it and shared it on his Instagram profile, calling for revenge. The Sabotage Assault Reconnaissance Group (Rusich), noticed the put up and has escalated the scenario right into a bloody contest, with prizes.
“Take a lesson from the enemy: that is what a victorious military appears like, not a gang,” mentioned the pro-Ukrainian navy officer, nicknamed Slavian, whereas urging his males to mimic their enemies.
In his subsequent put up, the Russian Volunteer Corps member shared photos despatched to him by different Ukrainian troopers, displaying them posing with the our bodies of useless Russian combatants. In a video, a soldier shot a deceased Russian within the head in the midst of a forest, subsequent to the caption: “Long reside dying.” According to the Russian Volunteer Corps, talking to the unbiased information channel Sota, their official stance is “to not contact prisoners,” and the problem issued by Slavian solely entails “taking images with useless troopers.” This declare has not been verified.
Slavian’s phrases have been paraphrased by Rusich days later. “Take word. This is the way you {photograph} a victorious military, not a dropping one,” the unit retorted final weekend, whereas saying its competitors.
This isn’t the primary time Rusich has proposed executing prisoners of battle. At the beginning of the invasion in 2022, when the primary exchanges of captured troops between Moscow and Kyiv have been made public, the unit revealed a information entitled “Instructions for the Elimination of Prisoners of War of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
The doc beneficial not informing troopers from different Russian corporations concerning the executions. “If it has been reported, then report that the enemy is wounded and will die,” it suggested.
However, executions should not distinctive. Ukraine reported a wave of killings of its prisoners of battle in 2024. And a 12 months in the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin posed with the flag of the one hundred and fifty fifth Marine Infantry Brigade throughout his conventional annual handle to the media and the general public. That unit, actually, had been accused of impaling the severed heads of Ukrainian troopers.
According to Russian veterans who spoke to this newspaper, snipers and drone pilots are sometimes essentially the most susceptible to being killed after they give up. Their executions, proven in movies, vary from point-blank shootings to beheadings. “The entrance is horrible. The shock makes it inconceivable for some to behave humanely. An individual who experiences this can’t be regular after the battle, in any nation,” a Russian commander mentioned months in the past.
The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, to which each Russia and Ukraine are signatories, expressly forbids the execution of surrendered troopers.
Among the prohibited acts specified by Article 3 of the conference, a pillar of worldwide regulation, are: “Violence to life and individual, particularly homicide of all types, mutilation, merciless remedy and torture,” and “the passing of sentences and the finishing up of executions with out earlier judgment pronounced by a commonly constituted courtroom affording all of the judicial ensures that are acknowledged as indispensable by civilized peoples.”
In any case, it’s Moscow and Kyiv, not Rusich or another particular unit on both facet, which can be finally answerable for these battle crimes. “Prisoners of battle are within the palms of the enemy Power, however not of the people or navy items who’ve captured them. Irrespective of the person tasks that will exist, the Detaining Power is answerable for the remedy given them,” Article 12 of the Geneva Convention emphasizes.
Furthermore, the doc stipulates that if the belligerent energy can’t assure the safety of prisoners of battle, it should entrust their security to a impartial state or to organizations such because the Red Cross.
“Glory to Rus! Glory to Morana!” This was the slogan with which Rusich concluded the announcement of its prisoner execution contest. The phrase “Rus” refers to a number of historical peoples of Eastern Europe of unsure origins who gave rise to Kievan Rus, the primary of a number of medieval Slavic states. Morana, for her half, was the traditional Slavic goddess of dying.
Rusich, now a part of the Russian Armed Forces, was a unit of the Wagner mercenary firm. The group is understood for its overtly far-right ideology. Its chief, Alexey Milchakov, declared himself a Nazi in a 2014 interview with the digital media outlet Sputnik and Pogrom, and its image is the Kolovrat, an eight-pointed swastika-like rune popularized by Alexey Dobrovolsky, one of many fathers of Slavic neo-paganism in Russia. The navy patch is accomplished with the white, yellow, and black colours of the Russian imperial flag.
The Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK) was based by exiles with the aim of overthrowing the Kremlin. Its chief is Denis Kapustin, often known as Denis Nikitin, a martial arts fighter who has been linked to far-right teams in Europe and who was banned from coming into the Schengen Area by Germany.
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