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

submitted 1 year ago by SeaJ@lemm.ee to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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[-] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 22 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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

[-] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 11 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Dolores@hexbear.net 8 points 1 year 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