By Andrey Kots
[RIA Novosti] Torture, sadism, psychological abuse and executions - more and more evidence of the inhuman treatment of prisoners by Ukrainian security forces is being published on the Web. The servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Battalions, without hiding their faces, shoot and mutilate Russian soldiers on camera. Official Kyiv condemns these "excesses" only in words, but in reality it simply ignores them. In fact, the nationalists received carte blanche for any atrocities.
On the frames of a recent video from the Armed Forces of Ukraine - a road going through a forest belt in the Kiev region. On the pavement are four bloodied fighters in the form of the Russian Airborne Forces. One is still alive - moving and wheezing. However, no one tries to help him. On the contrary, the Ukrainian security officer calmly finishes off the wounded with three shots from a machine gun. “Here they are, defenders, here it is, the Russian army,” the cameraman says happily.
"Hands, legs were tied, they started beating." Soldier of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation about Ukrainian captivity.
Ukrainians are in a great mood: they joke, laugh and brag about their “victory”. It can be seen that they like the role of executioners. The fact that unarmed paratroopers were executed, and not killed in a fair fight, is beyond doubt. The bodies lie side by side, all finished off with a shot in the head, one has his hands tied behind his back. Later it turned out that this video was filmed on March 30, when Russian troops were leaving the Kiev region: the BMD was ambushed.
"The actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other Ukrainian military formations grossly violate the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War," the Russian Investigative Committee said. The Chairman of the Investigative Committee instructed to initiate a criminal case, thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the incident, record evidence of the nationalists' crimes, and establish their identities.
Social networks quickly identified some of the "heroes" of that video. This, presumably, is a militant of the "Georgian Legion" Teimuraz Khizanishvili and a resident of Kiev Alexei Antonyuk. They have repeatedly been on business trips in the Donbass and have considerable combat experience. And, probably, the Russian special services have already taken them on a pencil.
"TORTURE NOT TO SHOOT"
The first video of prisoners being tortured was published online on March 27. On the footage, nationalists mock wounded Russian soldiers. During interrogation, one of them apparently dies. Three are shot in the legs. With such injuries and the lack of medical care, a person bleeds very quickly. On the same day, an even more terrible video appeared: a nationalist with extreme cruelty kills a bound soldier with a knife.
Later it became known that the prisoners were abused in the village of Malaya Rogan near Kharkov on the territory of a local dairy plant. According to the Russian investigation, 28-year-old Sergey Velichko and 26-year-old Konstantin Nemichev took part in the massacre. Both are adherents of the ultra-right ideology, they are part of the command staff of the Kraken unit of the Azov regiment. The Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against them under the article "Attempted murder of two or more persons, committed by a group of persons with special cruelty."
The actions of the sadists amazed even Western journalists, who, as a rule, do not notice the Nazis in Ukraine. Many media accused Kyiv of violating the rules of war. I had to react. Presidential adviser Alexei Arestovich recognized such treatment of prisoners of war as a crime and called for the punishment of those responsible.
UKRAINIAN MILITARY IN THE CITY OF BUCHA
The Ukrainian negotiators said the same to the Russian delegation at a meeting in Istanbul at the end of March. Nevertheless, neither Velichko nor Nemichev was ever detained. Kyiv simply banned the publication of such videos. Once again: do not torture, but make public. However, the nationalists even ignored this ban.
Recently, the Russian Defense Ministry published a series of interviews with servicemen who returned on exchange from Ukrainian captivity. The fighters say that they were severely beaten, kept in cold rooms, and not fed. And they constantly pressed psychologically, mocked, discussed aloud how they would be killed. The pilots were especially hard hit - they tortured them all day long, they didn’t let them sleep, they threatened to cripple them.
Against this background, the conditions in which the surrendered Ukrainians are kept are more reminiscent of a sanatorium. They are treated in republican hospitals and hospitals, fed with army dry rations, and allowed to call their relatives.
“The maximum that we allow ourselves is to demand on camera to call on our comrades to lay down their arms,” says a DPR army officer with the call sign Bereza. “We consider it beneath our dignity to torture and shoot enemy soldiers. When the fighting ends, they will be exchanged for ours. war crimes, especially Nazis, we will judge. The human attitude towards the enemy is the best advertisement for our captivity. Recently, more than 250 marines surrendered in Mariupol. If we had hell, they would not have dared to do this."
The way the Ukrainian security forces treat Russian military personnel is very reminiscent of the "glorious traditions" of the militants of the "Islamic State" * or Mexican drug cartels - truly bestial cruelty. The ideological heirs of the executioners of Khatyn and Babi Yar are rapidly degrading to the level of their idols.
