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Russian soldier admits proudly his comrades were killing POWs (euromaidanpress.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (3 children)

He also says his comrades once took captive a Polish soldier, forced him to stand on his knees, and killed him by shooting him in the head.

Sounds like a foreign mercenary to which the laws of war relating to prisoners of war don't apply.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

the guy who killed him is also a mercenary. and poles live in ukraine, there are lawful combatants from the polish citizens of ukraine.

e: the article says "volunteer" but that still seems like something that would need a trial to determine whether they lacked protections before a summary execution. that should apply to any participants from neighboring countries' ethnicities

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

The article also says this guy was recruited from prison, something Wagner's been doing from the start. AFAIK this is an actual "both sides" thing, and I'm sure that both Ukraine and Russia are guilty of more than we currently know as a result of this practice.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The definition of mercenary for POW purposes requires that the mercenary not be from the country which the armed forces are from. Russian guy fighting for Russian military via PMC is not a mercenary. Polish guy fighting for Ukranian military via PMC could be.

You're right in that a trial should be conducted but given that there's plenty of Ukrainians uploading videos of them torturing Russian POWs, I think we're well past that point.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

you could also say the folding of the ukrainian foreign legion into the territorial defense forces formally makes them not mercenaries with an equal legal footing. either we stringently follow the geneva conventions and there are no mercenaries on either side, or we call a spade a spade

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Bad take. Killing prisoners is unacceptable if it isn't in crisis or revolution.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Counterpoint: every last Azovite should have been lined up and shot after Mariupol, not bartered back to Ukraine in prisoner exchanges.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago

I don't think volunteers in the army itself count as mercenaries. Certainly I see no reason why international law as such doesn't apply to them.

I really don't think it is good to justify arbitrary executions of PoWs.