Behind the bars of hell

The UN mission published a report on violence against prisoners during the war in Ukraine. We tell its content briefly, and why experts are dissatisfied with the document

Arbitrary executions

Representing the report, the head of the UN Monitoring Mission, Matilda Bogner, said that her team interviewed more than 400 prisoners of war on each side. Ukraine, according to Bogner, provided the mission to the mission "unhindered confidential access to the official places of internation of Russian prisoners of war." Russia, on the same time, refused this access. However, members of the mission managed to get the necessary information by conducting "confidential interviews with Ukrainian prisoners of war after their release."

Speaking about the surrendered Russian troops, Matilda Bogner spoke about about 25 arbitrary executions of such prisoners of war and other persons who stopped participating in military operations. These executions were committed by soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Often this happened immediately after capturing directly on the battlefield,” said the UN representative. “We know that the Ukrainian authorities conduct an investigation in five cases that concern 22 victims, but we do not have data on court proceedings regarding the perpetrators.”

At the same time, the UN mission recorded arbitrary executions of 15 Ukrainian prisoners of war immediately after their capture by the Armed Forces of Russia. 11 of these executions were made by military and contractors from the Wagner PMC.

Beatings, torture, imitation of execution

According to Bogner, almost half of the 229 Russian prisoners of war, with whom the UN representatives talked, spoke about torture or cruelty by Ukrainian military and the SBU, as well as, to a lesser extent, employees of penitentiary institutions. Most of these cases occurred at the first stages of detention and interrogation. The prisoners of war, according to Bogner, were beaten, they were shot at their feet, injured, tortured with electric shock, threatened with sexual violence or death, including by simulating the execution.

In the places of the maintenance of Russian prisoners, such as investigative insulators or camp, there were significantly fewer reports of cruelty. Although there were separate complaints about beating in some of these institutions: in the Dnieper, Vinnitsa and Kharkov last spring.

Of the 203 members of the mission of Ukrainian prisoners of war, 67 percent said that they fell into the hands of Russian forces after the commanders agreed to surrender. In these cases, there were no particularly gross offenses during his stay.

However, most Ukrainian prisoners of war, which were captured during the battle, were tortured. Russian troops and FSB officers brutally treated them, knocking out the necessary information, intimidated or humiliated. Many reported that they were tortured using electric current, and in some cases they shot at the limbs or injured. An imitation of execution was also a common occurrence. The report describes the case when the prisoner of war died from injuries a few hours after torture.

Matilda Bogner explained that the conditions of detention of many Ukrainian prisoners of war were shocking.

She added that Ukrainians were poorly fed and not treated. According to the report, five prisoners of war died due to the fact that they were not provided with medical care.

The number of documented cases of torture and cruelty to Russian penitentiary institutions is high: more than 84 percent of the total number of Ukrainian prisoners of war passed through these circles of hell, Bogner said. Employees of the penitentiary institutions of Russia and the territories controlled by it subjected prisoners of war to the so -called “congratulatory bends” after their arrival, regularly beat, tortured electric shock during inspections in cells or walks around the institution. Former prisoners of war said that they were afraid of weekly campaigns in shower, which inevitably ended with beating and humiliation, often with sexual subtext.

Where are the facts?

“I would like to hear the undeniable facts and arguments on which the conclusions of the mission are based on possible violations from Ukraine,” says Ukrainian video blogger and journalist Vladimir Zolkin, who became famous for his interview with Russian prisoners of war. - In the UN report, which shocked me, no dates, numbers, names and names are given. It is not unclear in what period the data was collected. I can judge from my own experience, by today we interviewed about 500 Russians who are captured. Therefore, we have a general picture of the conditions of their content. All our interlocutors presented themselves and talked about what happened to them. There were complaints about the hard process of captivity. One said that at the time of captivity, they shot the colleague stretching behind the machine gun, and he himself was stunned by the impact of the butt. However, it is precisely about the attitude of employees of the penitentiary system of complaints that are extremely rare. ”

According to Vladimir Zolkin, he was extremely surprised by the information published by the UN that the Russian side made only 15 spontaneous executions of the surrendered Ukrainians. Our interlocutor is convinced that such tragedies happen much more often. According to Zolkin, video castration and executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war Russians are freely walking on the network. It is necessary to recall the recent video with the execution of Alexander Matsievsky. There are no such videos on the Russian side, but there are attempts to brackets of illegible fakes on which nothing can be understood.

“According to the report, the soldiers of the regular army of the Russian Federation allowed 4 executions of 15 indicated,” Zolkin continues to tell. - And 11 committed the Wagnerians. It turns out that the soldiers of the Armed Forces are almost white fluffy bunnies. These are the same soldiers who shot people in the back of the head in Buch, which have confirmed data. These are the same soldiers, after whose stay in the discovered raisins, 447 bodies of the dead Ukrainians with traces of violent death exhumed. Of these, 215 women and five children. And in the same raisins the bodies of 22 troops exhumed. I am sure that these were executed Ukrainian prisoners. ”

Vladimir Zolkin focuses on the fact that Russia did not provide employees of the UN Mission to access to the Ukrainian prisoner of war behind bars. “I would like to ask what the UN mission did in order to get this access, and how many times its employees reported that Russia refuses this access? - asks Vladimir Zolkin. - It seems to me that you need to scream about this very loudly, and it is advisable to do it before the report, and not just dryly mention that Russia refused access. Our prisoners are kept in isolation, without access to them of international organizations, such as the UN or Red Cross. ”

Vladimir Zolkin recalls how the Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets stated that during repeated personal meetings with the head of the mission, Matilda Bogner and the constant coordinator of the UN system in Ukraine Deniz Brown, they had never been affected by the issue of handling Russian prisoners of war. That is, according to Lubinz, the constant representative of the UN mission is in Ukraine, he has no questions and appeals to the Ombudsman. But where did the 25 executions come from?

Speaking about 15 cases of the execution of Ukrainian military, Zolkin reminds of the murder of more than 50 and the wounds of another 75 Ukrainian prisoners in the colony in Elena last July. Vladimir Zolkin claims that the UN dismissed the mission to investigate the explosion in Elena due to the lack of security guarantees.

“We learn from Russian human rights defenders about the nightmares in which Ukrainian prisoners are located in Russia,” Vladimir Zolkin supplements the story. - Judging by the UN report, this situation, named in the shocking document, is currently absolutely common for all places of detention in Russia. Whereas Russian prisoners only know that they were applied to violence last spring and only in three Ukrainian pre -trial detention centers. ”

Zolkin says that in Ukraine they not only allow doctors to prisoners, but also allow the Russians to call home. A special prisoner of war camp was created in the Lviv region, equipped with all the norms of the Geneva Convention. There is three meals a day and there is even the opportunity to earn some money for cigarettes. You can take parcels from volunteers, humanitarian funds and charitable organizations.

According to Vladimir Zolkin, the attempts of the Russian side to make a video interview with Ukrainian prisoners almost failed. After all, a very small percentage of these people agreed to communicate with representatives of the authorities or propagandists. Only a few dozen military personnel of the Armed Forces managed to persuade for conversation. The phrases said by them look like memorized in advance. One gets the impression that all conversations are directed and recorded under the dictation.

Vladimir Zolkin also talks about the fact that the Russian side has many civilians from among former Ukrainian officials or activists.

According to them, according to the Ukrainian blogger, they also often mock in places of content, and sometimes torture. These people do not and cannot have any important information.

Special forces for bullying

Russian human rights activists really note a particularly cruel attitude towards the Ukrainian military who fell into the places of imprisonment in the Russian Federation. “The Russian FSIN on a regular basis transfer its special forces from one region to another so that their fighters can beat and mock prisoners of war,” the founder of the Gulagu.net project Vladimir Osechkin told the Novo-Europe. - So, the special unit of the Moscow Federal Penitentiary Service (department "Saturn") left last year to the notorious Elenaovka, Donetsk region, where its fighters tormented the Ukrainians. Moreover, according to my data, the generals instructed the special forces as cruel to prisoners as cruelly as possible. ”

According to Vladimir Osechkin, until recently, the special forces went on monthly business trips right on the column of special equipment, sometimes accompanied by armored personnel carriers. But, starting in March of this year, the term of business trips doubled. At the same time, one concentration camp “serves” two or three special forces in turn.

Vladimir Osechkin believes that the highest leadership of Russia set the task of breaking the will of the Ukrainians who were captured and forced to do what the authorities will say: to march, sing the Russian anthem, renounce their country, etc. “And in the summer they knocked out the testimony for the tribunal, which they were going to arrange the Nazis,” the head of Gulagu.net continues. “But practically no one found anyone, who would agree to go a witness, and this idea was stalled.” At the same time, the special forces, of course, are much more pleasant to nightmare the prisoners and kick them on the kidneys than to sit under fire in the trenches in Ukraine. Therefore, they took the opportunity to mock Ukrainians with great enthusiasm. ”

The Hague is waiting

Vladimir Osechkin explains that over the past 13 months, the Gulagu.net and New Dissants Foundation team collected information on the creation of torture prisons and military concentration camps on the basis of the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Thanks to insiders and exposure from the Federal Penitentiary Service itself, human rights activists were able to deanonymize more than 100 sadists from among the employees of the FSIN and fighters of more than 10 special forces (special forces) of regional Federal Penitentiary Service, who on a systematic basis beat, tortured and humiliated Ukrainian prisoners.

“For more than 10 years, Putin’s sadists and executioners tortured Russians to suppress the will and intimidate the people,” adds Vladimir Osechkin. - Since March 2022, the Russian special services began to be placed in the torture conveyors of citizens of Ukraine (both military and civilians) as “persons impeding their own”. The wording itself is absurd! We have transferred more than 100 GB of materials collected by the international investigation and express hope for organizing an international investigation into these crimes against humanity and humanity, as well as on military crimes and torture conveyors, in which thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have suffered torment, torture, rape and even murders. For our part, we are preparing lists of persons in respect of which sanctions must be imposed and orders for their detention and arrest should be issued. ”

War is not a knightly tournament

The current situation does not surprise some of the Russian experts. “I read the UN report and I can say that the facts set forth in it are not a surprise to me,” says human rights activist Igor Kalyapin, the founder of the “Committee against torture” committee. - Last spring, I argued that the torture of prisoners, beating, abduction, hopeless executions and other gross violations of human rights will necessarily happen, and both sides of the conflict. The world has created a large regulatory framework for various decisions of conventions, agreements and rules of war. But in no real conflict, these rules do not work.

War is not a knightly tournament. Not all warring fighters are able to comply with these norms. Moreover, in practice, few of the soldiers know them. ”

According to Igor Kalyapin, the atrocities and grave violations of human rights happen in absolutely any war. The human rights activist is confident that the main guilty one should be considered the one who decided to begin the beginning of hostilities.

Igor Kalyapin is convinced that the UN cannot have at least some objective data on the number of cases of violence committed by both aspects of the confrontation at the moment. The human rights activist is confident that there are much more similar incidents than those that have become known.

“It is extremely difficult to document cases of bullying of prisoners,” Igor Kalyapin continues the conversation. - It is likely that this manages to do this in one of ten, and it is possible that out of the hundred incidents. I am sure that the level of violence in the military units is determined, among other things, the probability of responsibility for their actions. In the case of Russia, we know that it is extremely difficult to punish those dressed in the form of sadists. The state does not actually do this. The scatters themselves are not waiting for any sanctions and will call them the betrayal of Wow veterans. After the adoption of a bill in the first reading, which cancel the criminal liability for crimes committed in the occupied territories and “in the interests of Russia”, many generally have a feeling of complete impunity. In fact, after the appearance of such an indulgence, the Russian army will be able to fearlessly commit crimes. Nowadays, when almost any action can be recorded on a video camera, removed from the drone or recorded in other ways, only those who are not afraid to be responsible for it can create outright chaos. ”

Among the Russian troops there are many mobilized, who were “shaved” not of their own free will. But there are many who are ready to kill on their own initiative. For such soldiers, according to Kalyapin, to fulfill the assigned order is the main task. They will not think about humanism or laws of war and the consequences of their act. It makes no sense about the moral qualities of mercenaries going to lose their lives for money, or former prisoners. Igor Kalyapin recalls that in the “Wagner PMC” they called in the colonies primarily those who committed violent crimes and murders. For criminals, this became the opportunity to avoid punishment imposed by the court. It is now strange to expect from such recruits of law -abiding. No wonder the UN report says that 11 of the 15 murders of Ukrainian prisoners were committed by the fighters of the Wagner PMC.

Igor Kalyapin is sure that Ukrainian military are motivated much better than Russians and understand why they risk their lives on the battlefield. The human rights activist assumes that a person who is fighting for high, bright goals will try not to compromise these goals with his behavior and not disgrace the homeland for which he is fighting. At the same time, according to the human rights activist, the murder in the war is the main goal of the soldier and in no case does not want to reduce the level of his aggressiveness.

“For me, the unwillingness of Kyiv is indicative of lowering such things on the brakes. The UN report says that Ukraine is investigating cases of violence against prisoners committed by the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, ”says Igor Kalyapin. - Representatives of the Ukrainian authorities officially guaranteed a fair investigation to torture prisoners of war. In Russia, as far as I know, there are not a single such things. ”

"Roof rides" even among professionals

But why do people normal in civilian women, wearing shoulder straps, suddenly become sadists? About this "Novo-Europe" asked the specialist.

“War is an absolutely abnormal state for a person, often raising everything the worst in him. Иногда от сверхсильных раздражителей «крыша едет» даже у профессиональных военных, не говоря уже о мобилизованных и добровольцах, пошедших под влиянием агитации или за деньгами, — рассказал «Новой-Европа» российский психотерапевт, занимающийся реабилитацией людей с посттравматическими стрессовыми расстройствами (ПТСР), согласившийся общаться на условиях анонимности. — На войне люди с обеих сторон находятся в постоянном тяжелом стрессе. При этом иногда у военных в руках внезапно оказывается громадная власть над другими. И расстрел — крайняя форма этой власти, порой вызванная максимальной степенью озлобленности. Недавно ко мне на прием приходил получивший ранение офицер из «группы Вагнера». Он рассказывал, что казнить могут, к примеру, если находят у сдающихся солдат противника в телефонах записи насилия над российскими пленными. Также убийство, как крайняя мера, может быть вызвано желанием сломить человека. В подобной ситуации необходимо идти до конца и выполнить озвученные угрозы.

Так было в случае украинского солдата, крикнувшего своим врагам «Слава Украине». Иногда подобное убийство служит педагогической цели. Ведь если всех пугать и не в кого не стрелять — боятся перестанут».

Наш собеседник утверждает, что отыгрываться за испытанный в бою ужас может чаще всего плохо подготовленный боец, а натренированный профессионал вероятнее удержится от избыточного насилия. Но сегодня на фронтах всё больше недавно набранных в армию гражданских.

По словам врача, ПТСР, в той или иной степени развивающееся у большинства находящихся на войне людей, у некоторых вызывает приступы агрессии и неконтролируемого насилия. Волны адреналина, накатывающие во время боя, уходя, оставляют в сердце пустоту. «Все, наверное, сталкивались с тем, что в компании иногда на празднике оказывается человек, начинающий «бычить» после выпивки? Вываливать на других свои комплексы? — говорит психиатр. — Можете себе представить, что с таким персонажем будет при артобстреле или после боя? В каждом человеке есть природная агрессивность, но некоторые предрасположены к применению насилия больше других. Предпосылки к садизму при помощи психологических тестов выявить можно. Но никто не знает, проявится ли эта особенность. А ведь именно такие люди, как правило, больше всего ценятся на войне. Они не жалеют неприятеля и часто проявляют смелость. Кроме того, большинство агрессивных людей легко подчиняются более сильному или высшему по званию, что в армии очень ценится».

По мнению нашего собеседника, личности, чувствующие в себе склонность к насилию, могут в военное время сознательно записываться добровольцами, чтобы подыграть своей темной стороне. «Война всё спишет», — под этим лозунгом совершается немало преступлений. Ведь именно в военное время все запреты и ограничения мирного времени кажутся незначительными.