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THE UNITED NATIONS said today it was “deeply concerned” by what it said were summary executions of prisoners of war by both Russian and Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.
The fresh allegations come shortly after Kyiv had accused Russian forces of killing a captured Ukrainian serviceman who was filmed saying “Glory to Ukraine” before being shot dead.
The head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday that her organisation had recently recorded killings by both sides.
“We are deeply concerned about (the) summary execution of up to 25 Russian prisoners of war and persons hors de combat by the Ukrainian armed forces, which we have documented,” Bogner said.
“This was often perpetrated immediately upon capture on the battlefield,” she said.
“While we are aware of ongoing investigations by Ukraine authorities into five cases involving 22 victims, we are not aware of any prosecution of the perpetrators,” she added.
Bogner also expressed “deep” concern over the alleged executions of 15 Ukrainian prisoners by Russian armed forces after their capture.
She said the Wagner mercenary group, which claims to be leading Russia’s assault for Bakhmut – the longest and bloodiest battle of the war – was responsible for 11 of those killings.
Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of mistreating prisoners of war since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded a year ago.
One UN report issued today claimed Ukrainian military personnel had subjected prisoners of war to death threats, mock executions or threats of sexual violence. Some beatings were “purely retaliatory”, it said.
“In some cases, officers beat POWs saying: ‘This is for Bucha,’” the mission reported detainees as saying, referring to a town near Kyiv where Russian forces were accused of widespread atrocities.
“Before questioning, they showed me an axe handle covered in blood as a warning,” the report quoted a Russian POW as saying.
“The questioning lasted for about an hour and they used electricity six times, whenever they thought I was lying,” the detainee said, according to the report.
Ukrainian POWs quoted said they were subjected to torture, sexual violence, a lack of food and water and denied medical attention that sometimes led to death.
They said they were tortured and ill-treated to extract information or as a form of punishment, the mission said.
Ukrainian prisoners reported being beaten with shovels, stabbed, subjected to electric shocks and strangled.
“Some of them lost their teeth or fingers, had their ribs, fingers or noses broken,” the report said.
“They did not just beat us, they broke us. They used their fists, legs, batons, tasers. There were POWs who had their arms or legs broken,” one man was quoted as saying.
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Good to see a balanced report. Shame on both of them.
@Sean Stevenson: so given the opportunity you’d be a war criminal killing someone else’s family. The old standard of ‘shame on war criminals’ as a general and widely applied concept is still the standard most people would keep to I would imagine. Although perhaps not aspiring war criminals.
@Sean Stevenson: wow, so given the opportunity you’d actually only be the first war criminal in history who felt his criminal actions were somehow justified. I misspoke, your blood lust and disregard for others actually isn’t a completely amoral position after all.
I’m quite perplexed at the way our establishment politicians and media types get into a moral outrage about this distant war. There was hardly a peep out of them when British soldiers were murdering Irish people in Ballymurphy and Derry.
@west awake: Well that’s a lie.
What is it you think the Arms Crisis was about?
And the Jack Lynch condemning the behaviour of the British?
Such a short memory.
@Sean Stevenson: And you think that each and every soldier that is caught should be killed?
Were Afghans entitled to kill any Western soldiers they caught following the invasion of their country? American soldiers and contractors in Syria, without any mandate, are they free game?
Were US soldiers caught in Vietnam or Cambodia or Laos (the 2 latter countries were never officially attacked) free game?
Soldiers do not start wars, that is up to the politicians If more politicians or their children actually died in combat, maybe we would not have as many wars.
The killing of unarmed soldiers and civilians is a war crime, irrespective of who does it and under what circumstances.
A Canadian officer who killed a badly wounded Taliban fighter (following a firefight in which they were wounded, fighting Canadian soldiers) to put them out of their pain and suffering, was actually court-martialed and dismissed from the military. This while they were under fire and had to withdraw for fear of being overrun.
Unarmed is unarmed. If that is tolerated, where do you stop it?
There are rules of war and they apply even if you are on the defensive.
One also did not say that the people doing the killing of unarmed prisoners had actually lost family members. There are may sick people out there. Same as during WW2, many unarmed prisoners being killed by the SS, for example, and it was not because Germany was invaded.
Somebody breaks into your house, are you allowed to shoot them?
One of the incidents involved Ukrainian troops summarily executing about half a dozen Wagner mercenaries who allegedly wore Ukrainian army uniforms in order to unfitrate Ukrainian defences. This happened about 6 weeks ago.
I did see Wagner post photos of themselves in these uniforms, they indeed looked a lot like some of the uniforms worn by Ukrainian soldiers.
That said, Ukrainian troops wear many different uniform styles as they get their kit from multiple international backers, so it’s possible Wagner wore the same uniform by accident.
Nevertheless, I had a hard time convincing people that summary execution is illigal, a war crime. Most thought that wearing an enemy uniform, the crime of Perfidy, allows for summary execution. It does not.
Summary execution was banned after the WWII by the 1947 Geneva Conventions, as Allied powers were angry that Hitler issued the Commando order, that ordered the summary execution of commandos behind enemy lines, who sometimes wore German military uniforms.
The Geneva Conventions say wearing a disguise is permitted in most cases e.g. escaping prisoners of war can wear the uniforms of prison guards, so can commandos operating behind enemy lines. The only case it’s illigal is an active battle zone, even then if soldiers in are caught wearing a disguise, an enemy uniform, they must be given a fair trial before sentence is passed.
In the case of Wagner, these are paid killers for hire and should not benefit from the protection afforded to prisoners of war. As to what their fate should be is another question however if I was a Ukrainian I know what my answer would be.
@Paul Shepherd: Such as Blackwater in Iraq and the Contractor that was killed in Syria on Thursday and the US retaliated in killing pro-Iranian fighters.
According to USA today, “about 900 U.S. troops and an unknown number of American military contractors in Syria, a presence that is maintained to apply pressure to the remnants of the Islamic State militant group and to try to limit Iran’s influence in Syria”.
Are American military contractors paid killers for hire or just your good old Western freedom fighters? There is no mandate to have them in Syria.
Contractors were also hired in Afghanistan as well as in Iraq after Saddam was toppled.
Let’s not forget that this report was produced under ENORMOUS pressure from the U.S/NATO member states!
@Alastar O’Leader: your point being? Remember Ukraine is as guilty as Russia in this and quite frankly, though illegal since the introduction of the Geneva conventions you can be bloody sure it has been happened in every war zone since. You anti US bias is very apparent in that comment, but thus time it has been badly misplaced
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