A Danish soldier who volunteered to fight alongside the Ukrainian armed forces has made unverified claims that Ukrainian soldiers have been executing Russian prisoners of war.
The Dane, who uses the pseudonym Jonas, has alleged that Ukrainian soldiers have killed Russian prisoners of war during the war, saying: “I have heard of one successful prisoner exchange, and that’s it,” and adding: “People are being killed.”
Said to be a marksman, Jonas travelled to Ukraine to volunteer to fight alongside the Ukrainian armed forces and told state-owned Danish broadcaster TV2 he has also killed Russian soldiers — but never any captured prisoners.
He told the broadcaster of an 18-year-old Russian prisoner of war who told him he had worked as a compute programmer in Russia prior to the war and did not want to be in Ukraine. According to Jonas, the teen was buried the next day after being killed.
TV2 admitted that they had no way to confirm whether or not the Danish volunteer’s claims were accurate but still cited prior claims of similar behaviour by the Ukrainian armed forces.
Zelensky Softens Army’s ‘Slaughtered Like Pigs’ Threat to Russian Soldiers: If You Surrender, We Will Treat You ‘Decently’https://t.co/904Qfkcdj4
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 15, 2022
Last month the official Facebook page of the Command of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine implied that surrendering Russian gunners would be executed, which in itself would be a war crime.
“From now on, there will be no more captured Russian artillerymen. No mercy, no ‘please do not kill, I surrender’ will not pass,” the post stated, adding that such Russians would be “slaughtered like pigs.”
The post was subsequently edited to remove these comments, however, and it was followed by another post showing what they said was a video of a captured Russian who had “killed Ukrainian children with [a] jet fire system” and realised “the horror of what was happening [and] made a wise decision and gave up, falling under the Geneva Convention” — likely an attempt to reassure concerned Westerners that prisoners were not being “slaughtered” despite their earlier rhetoric.
Days later, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky released his own statement, telling Russian soldiers: “On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I give you a chance. Chance to survive. If you surrender to our forces, we will treat you the way people are supposed to be treated. As people, decently.”
Zelensky Alleges Russians Plan to Falsely Claim Ukrainians Massacred Civilians In Mariupolhttps://t.co/1XHTMGAiVj
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 8, 2022
Unverified videos have emerged allegedly showing Ukrainian soldiers killing surrendered Russian soldiers, including one published this week allegedly showing a Ukrainian soldier shooting and killing a wounded Russian soldier near Kyiv.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba commented on the video, stating he was aware of it but had not seen it himself and that, in any case, the Ukrainian military “observes the rules of warfare. There might be isolated incidents of violations of these rules and they will definitely be investigated.”
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