"Volunteers" from captivity

Russia announced the creation of a battalion from captured Ukrainians. Human rights activists emphasize: military personnel are recruited under threats to torture

State Duma deputy Viktor Vodolatsky announced the creation of a battalion in Russia from Ukrainian prisoners of war, allegedly refused exchange. Human rights activists and international analysts warn: military personnel are in danger, which is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention and equates to a war crime.

This is not the first time that Russia uses captive Ukrainians, as well as residents of the occupied territories for their own purposes: “New Europe” already wrote how they were tortured and then forced to cooperate with the so-called Russian battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky. How plausible are the statements of the deputy, in what ways Ukrainians are recruited to such “battalions” and why are the armies of the Russian Federation-in the material of the “New-Europe”.

State Duma deputy Viktor Vodolatsky announced the creation of a whole battalion from Ukrainian prisoners of military personnel. According to him, from captured Ukrainians, who allegedly refuse to exchange and return home, after checks form a Ukrainian battalion under the command of the RF Armed Forces.

- Today there are prisoners of war who refuse to return home, want to stay here. Some conclude agreements after checking with units that are formed from the soldiers of the Ukrainian army under the command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, ”he says (quote for TASS ).

According to Ukrainian law ( Article 26 of the Law on Military Duties and Military Service), military personnel who are released from captivity undergo rehabilitation and have the right to dismiss from military service; They can again call for the front only if the military himself wished it.

How much is the words of the deputy?

Novyevropa spoke with Vladimir Zhbankov, coordinator of the project “Zhauk. Full ”, which since the beginning of a full -scale invasion is engaged in the search for Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia and in the occupied territories.

Zhbankov said that he could neither confirm nor refute information about the creation of a new battalion from Ukrainian prisoners, but noted that he said about this, who “would not say excess without haste”:

- As our practice shows, it is very unlikely (or even almost unbelievable) that the prisoners will go to this voluntarily. Nevertheless, after torture, blackmail and systematic deception, a person will sign everything that the executioners will be, ”said Zhbankov.

The Geneva Convention prohibits actions that can at risk the life of prisoners, the interlocutor of the New-Europe draws attention. In particular, near the zones of active hostilities. It is also strictly forbidden to use prisoners to cover military facilities or contain enemy strikes.

- We know that almost all Ukrainian prisoners of war are contained in conditions of complete isolation (Incommunicado), without access to lawyers, family members or international observers. This is an international crime.

Moreover, prisoners of war are tortured: systematic and cruel pressure is used to physically and psychologically destroy a person. We are talking about beating, strangulation, electrical cord, imitation of executions, prolonged deprivation of sleep, water and access to sanitary conditions.

Prisoners are often kept in dark chambers completely cut off from the outside world, without information about their legal status, the fate of relatives and even about the course of time, ”says the interlocutor of Novy-Europe.

These methods are used not to obtain information, but to suppress the will, I am sure of the Zhbankov. He emphasizes: any statements or recognitions made in such conditions are legally invalid.

An anonymous expert, who is also dealing with prisoners of war, in a conversation with Novo-Europe, expressed the opinion that in Russia they want to try to make a “clone of the Foreign Legion Gur”, which attracts foreign volunteers in Ukraine to repel Russian invasion (Legion “Freedom of Russia”, Russian Volunteer Corps and others):

“But if this could not be done earlier, it is difficult to imagine what will come out now,” he believes.

Not the first "Ukrainian battalion" under the command of Russia

In October 2023, the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) drew attention to how the Russian Army “recruited” captives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in their “volunteer units”. The Russian state media claimed that in the army of the Russian Federation there is the so -called Bogdan Khmelnitsky battalion of about 70 people, to which Ukrainians from Russian colonies are recruited. All of them allegedly received Russian citizenship and concluded contracts with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

ISW analysts noted that such actions violate the Geneva Convention ( Article 23 ): no prisoner of war can be kept or sent to areas, where he risks falling under fire in the war zone.

RIA Novosti published a video in which a man, called the fighter of the unit, Kirill Spasski, talks about "the first battle with the Armed Forces." The material was then widely distributed by the propaganda media.

The battalion commander, according to RIA Novosti, was appointed Andrei Tishchenko from the destroyed Mariupol. In February 2023, he announced that the volunteer unit was created in the occupied "DPR". The Vilna Radio confirmed that he was indeed a military personnel of the Armed Forces.

- They [Ukrainian prisoners of war] tell in these interviews that the process of obtaining Russian citizenship is now taking place. But under what conditions this process occurs, is it not about compulsory certification? This is a violation of international humanitarian law.

Forced to fight on the side of the enemy and forced passportation is a violation of the rights of prisoners of war, a war crime,

- noted the human rights activist, representative of the Ukranian Legal Advisory Group (Ulag) Arya Mora.

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to use this battalion, they wrote about this at the Institute for the Study of War and in May 2024. According to analysts, Russia systematically violates the Geneva Convention, using Ukrainian prisoners of war as a living shield on the battlefield and making executions over them without trial.

The GUR of Ukraine emphasizes : it is unlikely that the Khmelnitsky battalion is a real combat -ready unit. According to the Ukrainian side, this is more likely “the nature of the information and psychological operation”.

Russia has long been recruiting Ukrainians in the occupied territories in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

The fact that Russia forcibly mobilizes the Ukrainians into its troops was previously told by the representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Andrei Chernyak. It was about Ukrainians in the occupied territories: as he claimed in July 2023, by that time, since the beginning of a full-scale invasion, the Russian authorities forcibly mobilized from 55 to 60 thousand residents of Crimea, as well as the Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions.

- This is a violent mobilization: they caught people on the street, they came to those few enterprises that still worked, and forcibly took people: they simply changed clothes and sent to the front. They promised, they say, you will be on the second, on the third line, but in fact people fell on the front line, ”said Chernyak.

A similar situation was with students, he added: "The man went to class in the morning, and two days later he is already fighting." For refusing to sign a contract, Ukrainians are threatened with assault brigades, hinting at inevitable death, told the Freedom TV channel.

In the occupied territories, a call for military service in the Russian army is also being submitted: the sources of the Ukrainian television channel 24 at the Center for National Resistance in the Zaporizhzhya Region argue that some of the autumn calls were forced to sign a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense.

"There is a hidden forced recruitment of Ukrainians" in the army of Russia,

The TV channel approves, emphasizing that forced mobilization in the occupied territories contradicts articles 49 and 51 of the Geneva Convention on the protection of the civilian population during the war.

There are frequent cases when residents of the captured Ukrainian territories in the Russian units fall into Ukrainian captivity, the representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence Evgeny Erin emphasized .

Again negotiations - again the exchange of prisoners

On July 23, the third meeting of the delegations of Ukraine and Russia, which lasted about 40 minutes, took place in Istanbul. According to the results, the parties agreed on the exchange of 1,200 prisoners of war on each side. In addition, it was about the return of civilians, which are kept on Russian territory in colonies and prisons.

Novyevropa wrote as Russian military, returned to their homeland as a result of the exchange of prisoners, is returned back in the unit. Human rights activists emphasized: after that they can be sent to the front again, despite the fact that, according to the Geneva Convention, it is impossible to use prisoners of war in the actual service. Relatives of the military have repeatedly said that after the exchange they were not even allowed to see their loved ones: men, including the wounded, are simply directed to the front line.