Corpses under Makeevka

What is known about the execution of the Russian military who surrendered, and why it is necessary to welcome the intention of Ukraine to begin the investigation

Ukraine promised to investigate the video from under the village of Makeevka and figure out the circumstances of the death of twelve Russian soldiers, shot after ten of them, surrendering to the ground, and the eleventh opened fire on the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

To begin with, what we know today.

Two videos are publicly available. The first appeared on the Twitter of the Necro Mancer user (trains Russian aggression in the Donbass since 2014) seven days ago. It was entitled: “ It seems that something happened here. And hens in figs . " The video was shot from a quadrocopter.

Below there was a courtyard of a private house with a characteristic red toy machine. In the courtyard - eleven corpses, chickens roamed between them. Eight corpses lay in a row. Two - somewhat in the distance, as if in the depths of buildings ( remember this ). Another corpse - ( remember again ) ahead of all in a few meters.

The corpses in a row aroused suspicion, especially since in the wake of blood it could be assumed that almost everyone who lies in a row was killed by a shot. It was little like the result of shelling.

The second video appeared later. He, in particular, was published by the Prochrevsky telegram channel "Fisherman". I counted at least five APU soldiers on it in the same yard with a red machine. One takes everything on the phone, three are with machine guns, one lies with the PKM machine gun. The machine gun is aimed at surrendering Russian soldiers, who, it seems, are much more than Ukrainians.

Note that shooting on the phone in such a situation is at least trouble -free. Except for this, the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine clearly follow the optimal procedure. If you take captivity of the enemy, who is numerically surpassing you, act optimally just like that: install a machine gun, put everyone in the ground, and then raise each one alone, search, verifying that it has no hidden weapons, put on handcuffs and let the machine gunner into the rear of the machine gunner. In the case of any provocation, the machine gunner immediately opens fire. “Ukrainians followed the procedure and therefore are now alive,” writes the former employee of the Italian army Thomas Teiner.

It is also clear that no one is going to shoot people whose change he shoots on the video.

The soldiers of the Russian Federation leave the house and lie in front of the machine gun on the ground. "Everyone came out?" "An officer who of you?" - one of the Ukrainians asks. At that moment, the eleventh soldier comes out. He has a machine gun in his hands, he begins to shoot. The author of the video drops the camera and grabs the machine. (Apparently, he is wounded).

Assessments of foreign users on Reddit, where this video is also published, are quite unanimous . "He wanted to shit and killed everyone, a moron." “That's why you can’t pretend that you are giving up.” “It seems that as soon as someone began to shoot, everyone started. Some of them are not in those poses, as in the video in which they gave up, probably tried to run away or react. I think the machine gunner simply sewed them with all the queues, and then those who survived were shot because they did not warn the Ukrainians about the ambush and this led to the death of one of them. ” "Horror." "Fucking Rambo." "I do not want to justify this, but treachery has consequences."

The main subject of the discussion: Ukrainians shot all at once, that is, in the fever of the battle, or there is at least one person who remained motionless, and then he was shot.

Ruslan Leviev from CIT believes that two war crimes on the video. The first is done by a soldier who, at the time of surrender, opens fire. This is a treachery, and treachery is a separate war crime prohibited in 1977 by a separate additional protocol to the Geneva Convention on August 12, 1949.

Verolism, by definition, puts under blow to everyone who surrenders. The second crime is committed by employees of the Armed Forces, shooting not only the one who opened fire, but also ten surrenders.

Leviev gives an example another video in which two Russian military are surrendered, and the third grabs a grenade. He is killed, but the officer specifically orders: but do not touch these two.

Roman Svitan, the pilot of the Armed Forces and a military expert, does not agree with Leviev. “They did not have time to think,” he says, “in the war, everything is decided by reflexes. If you think, you will become a dead man. The shooting has begun - you shoot you. ” The same thing says Alexey Ardspovich. A man who started shooting at the height of surrender, when everyone has nerves to the limit, and Ukrainians in the minority, destroyed himself and his comrades. Arrestovich also says that Ukraine is investigating this case.

We do not know exactly what happened between the first video and the second. We do not know how many APU soldiers were: five or more. The most important thing - and this is a key question - mowed Russians with one burst or finished off later .

Nevertheless, after a careful study of both videos, I would dare to note the main detail. Namely - eight of the eleven killed lie in almost the same position as in the first video. People in a row on the left did not even have time to even move. The last two on the right managed to rise and tried to rush scattering, and then they were squinted by a machine gun. But Rambo, who fled to the machine gun, managed to take a few steps forward and lies right in front of the corpses of his comrades.

In other words, we can assume (but only assume, I emphasize) that everything happened almost instantly. Rambo began to shoot and run forward, and the machine gunner immediately squinted him and those who were behind him from left to right: that is why the left did not even have time to turn, and the right, the farthest, began to flee. But is it possible to exclude the possibility that someone remained lying and was shot later? This can be established only by the investigation and the court.

Both sides - both Russian and Ukrainian, - of course, parted in the video assessment. For official Russia, the video captures the "execution of prisoners", for Ukrainian patriots - "Orc treacherously tried to shoot Ukrainian soldiers." At the same time, many on both sides insist on the fact that in the video “Everything is clear” and “there is nothing to discuss here”. Such a categorical ban on discussion is usually a sign that it is just what to discuss.

Similar stories periodically happen in civilized armies. As a rule, their assessment is shared by society.

In 2016, the whole of Israel divided the trial of the soldier Elor Azara , who shot the Palestinian terrorist Abdel Fattah al-Sharif. Al-Sharif stabbed with a knife of the Israeli soldier, he was shot, he lay on the ground, and then Elor Azaria finished him, lying. This fell on the camera of the activist of the missing Israeli organization "Bewits". There was a court. Azaria claimed that he decided that al-Sharif had an explosive device under his jacket, and that he was reaching for a knife.

The Minister of Defense of Israel Moshe Ayalon, the head of the General Staff Gadi Eisenkot and the then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Azaria violated the ethical code of the army. Other politicians and ministers - Naphtilov Bennett and Avigdor Lieberman - defended Azaria. He received 18 months prison, served nine.

In 2012, US Army Lieutenant Clint Allen Laurence commanded a patrol in Afghanistan . The patrol began to catch up with a motorcycle with three Afghans. Laurence decided that these were suicide bombers and ordered to open fire. The Afghans were killed on the spot. These were civilians. In 2013, the military court sentenced Laurence to 20 years in prison; President Trump pardoned him.

Another American lieutenant, Michael Beenna, served in Iraq in 2008 . Soldiers from his unit were blown up on a home -made bomb. The local Sheikh informed Beenna that the bomb was installed by the local emissar al-Qaeda named Ali Mansur Mohammed. Beenna arrested Ali Mansur and handed over to the military contrast, but after some time Ali Mansur released with the words "We could not collect sufficient evidence." Beenne was instructed to deliver Ali Mansur home. Beenna started him behind the nearest bridge and slapped him. Beenna received 25 years, served five, and in 2019 he was pardoned by Trump.

In all such cases, it is extremely difficult to decide who is right, who is to blame. But in all these cases, in civilized nations, this is decided by the court, and the situation itself split the society. This is the civilized nation and differs from non -cylidized. Not the fact that the military does not do this in it. And the fact that in all these - very difficult - cases of the circumstances of the incident is found out by the court.

There are abuses. The most famous is the Al-Suidi business, or the battle of Dannie . Danny battle is the name of the checkpoint in Iraq. In 2004, a group of British military personnel was ambushed at this checkpoint. Their opponents were terrorists from the Mahdi Army. The battle lasted for three hours and was so fierce that it came to bayonets (!). 20 militants were killed, nine were captured, and it cannot be said that the British are almond to do with them.

However, after the battle, the relatives of the militants decided to take advantage of the features of the British judicial system and get in the English court those who their sons could not be killed in ambush. Relatives of the terrorist al-Suidi sued the soldier, claiming that their boy was a peaceful resident, whom the British was dragged alive to the camp and swept to death. A separate role in this whole story was played by the British lawyer-legal entity Phil Shainer, who began to call the relatives of the militants who attacked the English soldiers and offer their services.

The investigation stretched for 10 years and cost the soldiers of the innumerable nervous, and British taxpayers are 25 million pounds . In the end, the court found that there was a malicious and intentional manipulation of the facts that relatives of militants and their lawyers were engaged in. The soldier was justified. Phila Scheininer was deprived of a license.

Al-Suidi's case is, of course, too much, but, once again we repeat, it shows how seriously in potential war crimes are seriously in the West. Each time they are investigated, society is divided into two camps, and each time society and the army risk. Or you demotivate the soldiers and endure their danger (and they will not shoot terrorists-suicide bombers on time on a motorcycle), or you risk turning soldiers into unpunished murderers of civilians or prisoners.

The fact that the balance is felt in each case is difficult to give (sometimes even at the cost of an unfair sentence) and allows society to remain civilized.

It is clear that all of the above cases differ from Ukrainian for one simple reason. Ukraine wages a large -scale war for survival. Britain in Afghanistan - with all respect - no.

Nevertheless, we know that in Ukraine there were similar processes. For example, the process above the Tornado battalion, which occupied terror, robberies and extortion. In 2014, Ukraine was different from Russia. The fact that in Russia those who robbed in the Donbass were awarded, and in Ukraine they were planted.

Contrary to what fierce defenders say on both sides, execution under Makeevka is not an “obvious business”, which “has nothing to discuss”.

This is a very difficult matter in which the verdict depends on the smallest nuances.

First of all, how many APU soldiers were in this courtyard, and from whether the machine gunner of lying people really mowed the same burst right in the midst of firing. And even then we will not know what actually flickered in the head of the shooter. "This is an ambush"? "Now they will rush?" “So here you are for a buch!”, “Well, that's all, now I have a reason not to take you prisoner?” Or did he not have time to think anything at all, but acted on the reflex?

That is why the intention of Ukraine can only be welcomed. It is clear that in a country that is fighting for life, and not for death, this will be limited to this. But it is important that it will be at least. In this sense, goodness who shout: “There is nothing to discuss here! Everything is so clear! " - They provide a bad service to Ukraine - regardless of how Russian propaganda uses this case.

And here it is important to recall that Russia has not yet been going to investigate the history of the murder of Evgeny Nuzhin with a sledgehammer or the story of the sadist, who first cut off the Ukrainian printer genitals, and then shot him, although Bellingcat and Insider identified the killer as a fighter of the Akhmat-Suga Mongsha battalion.

Although in both of these cases, unlike the execution under Makeevka, everything is really clear.