Football and cigarettes: Russian prisoners of war live in Ukrainian custody like in a holiday camp for adults – but many of them are still very young.
Sumy – The offensive in Kursk is one of the few successes for the Ukrainian army this year. It increases the negotiating potential of the defenders in the Ukraine War. It is not just about territory – People are also valuable commoditiesJust two weeks ago, Kiev and Moscow each exchanged over 100 prisoners. How are they doing in prison?
Russian prisoners in the Ukraine war: “We can even watch football here”
Prison is not boring and the treatment is better than expected, prisoners interviewed tell the Editorial Network Germany“To be honest, we are surprised that we are being treated so well. We can even watch football here. But we all want to go home. We want to be released as soon as possible,” one of the soldiers, who is called Shamil, tells the RNDHe is forced to fight in a unit of the Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov. He has been in Kursk since April. When the Ukrainian soldiers arrived, they hardly put up any resistance, some ran away. Other Russian officers also report that they quickly surrendered.
Prisoners of war in Kursk: mainly Russian conscripts affected
Many of those who monitor Russia’s southwestern border are conscripts in their 20s. Officially, they are not fighting against Ukraine, they are still in training. It is precisely they who are now filling the prisons in the border region: The independent Russian media iStories and Astra identified 29 and 42 conscripts respectively who are considered missing. The American WashingtonPost wrote of more than 250 young men, who are in a temporary prison in UkraineThe Ukrainian soldiers fed them and gave them cigarettes, explains 22-year-old Nikolai. “They came, talked to us, told us their stories, listened to ours,” he tells the WashingtonPost.
It is questionable whether Ukrainian soldiers are always so friendly. The United Nations reported at the beginning of the year that several Russian prisoners of war had credibly reported torture that allegedly took place outside of official institutions. However, almost all Ukrainians who are held captive in Russia complain of the same thing. They are beaten with metal sticks or given electric shocks. Torture is widespread and is used regularly, described the head of the U.N.Human Rights Monitoring Commission, Danielle Bell. Executions and murders also occur: At the end of July, a Ukrainian prisoner of war who was in solitary confinement in Russia died. His chest was broken in several places.
Ukrainian soldiers during Kursk offensive in Russia – “shoot at everything”
A civilian from Kursk finds the aggressive behaviour of the Ukrainian soldiers in the border area understandable: “They [die Ukrainer, Anm. d. Red.] feel a kind of animal hatred towards us. They shoot at everything. Hardly a surprise, they are in great pain. You can say what you want, but we invaded their country first,” said Petr in an interview with the exile media The Insider. It is easy to identify who is to blame for the threatening situation in Kursk: “I wish everyone in the Kremlin would drop dead,” an elderly man raged to the online magazine.
A sudden demise of the political elite in Moscow seems unlikely. But if Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has his way, the war will soon be over: he is currently working on a still secret peace plan. Zelensky wants to present this in the next few days at the UN General Assembly and in the White House. (uh)
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