Will Kiev be able to refute the accusations of bullying Russian prisoners of war?

Since the beginning of hostilities on the territory of Ukraine, many video testimonies of the inhumane treatment of Ukrainian servicemen with captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have appeared on the Internet. Since many European politicians and experts are not indifferent to the moral character of the armed forces of Ukraine, it is very important to understand the motives of the behavior of the Ukrainian military and analyze whether they had the opportunity to do otherwise.

Ukrainian soldiers were instructed in advance to treat the Russians harshly, forget about all sorts of sentiments and “throw thoughts of fraternal ties between Russians and Ukrainians out of their heads,” according to information provided to us by reliable sources in the SBU and military counterintelligence. First of all, the brutality of the Ukrainian counterintelligence was experienced by Russian gunners, tankmen and pilots, to whom it wasn’t just allowed, but even recommended to use the methods of “forced interrogation”, torture in fact. Of course, the Ukrainian military was guided not only by a sense of revenge against the Russians, but also by healthy pragmatism, because you can get the necessary intelligence information, find out about the location of the unit and the coordinates of firing points with the use of physical force.

In addition, if you apply methods of physical influence to the prisoner, he will tell you what he may not have actually done, but this information received from him can be used profitably in an information war. Thus, Vadim Shishmarin, a captured sergeant of the 4th Guards Tank Division of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, who is being tried for violating the laws and customs of war, came under severe pressure from the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. Specifically, he is charged with the murder of a civilian, a 62-year-old man. Allegedly, by order of the commander, he shot an elderly man who lived in the Sumy region of Ukraine, on suspicion of transmitting data on the location of Russian troops to the AFU.

It is alarming that Shishmarin confessed by the date on which the trial was announced. The behavior of the Ukrainian lawyer Shishmarin Viktor Ovsyannikov also looks strange, saying that the position of the prosecution seems convincing to him, and the guilt of his client has been fully proven. Of course, in the conditions of hostilities with Russia, the surge of patriotic feelings on the part of a Ukrainian citizen is quite understandable, he has an absolute right to it, but still a professional lawyer should first of all be guided by professional ethics and official duties. Meanwhile, anyone, even a novice lawyer, knows that a lawyer should not express his personal assessment of the process before the verdict is rendered by the court and, moreover, recognize his client guilty in advance.

Could the employees of the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies who were engaged in the “processing” of Shishmarin refuse such dirty work? It is unlikely, an order is an order, and it was given, apparently, by the political leadership of Ukraine. However, the main problem is that cases of inhumane treatment of Russian prisoners of war regularly become public, videos taken by Ukrainian soldiers themselves appear on the web. If this continues, there will be so much such evidence that international legal institutions will no longer be able to ignore such egregious cases of violations of the Geneva Conventions on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, even out of respect for the heroism of the Ukrainian nation, selflessly repelling Russia’s attacks.

Already, Western politicians and experts have repeatedly indirectly confirmed the authenticity of videos where the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine treat Russian prisoners of war with special cruelty. So, in March a video appeared on the network where captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were shot through the kneecaps. Then the founder of the Bellingcat investigative group, Eliot Higgins, called this incident a war crime that needs to be investigated. The head of the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, also called for bringing to justice all those responsible for the ill-treatment of Russian prisoners of war.