Publication author
Bogdan Krotevich “Taurus”
On September 21, 2022, I was released from captivity. Looking at my brothers, at their condition after Yelenovka and the Donetsk pre-trial detention center, I was shocked. Then I learned about the terrorist attack in Yelenovka. Read more in the exclusive blog for Channel 24 website.
APU needs more Russian prisoners
After that, I went to an old Telegram profile, where an unknown number uploaded a video of the execution of a Ukrainian soldier who was tied up, his genitals were cut off and left to die. Feelings of filth and misunderstanding, a sense of anxiety. Of course, this happens mostly at zero. But the concern is primarily for the captured brothers.
There are many such cases, a smaller part of them are filmed, even fewer are posted on the Internet, but they are and will be. War is filth and the peak of human contempt.
Can we afford such behavior? I think no. Until we win this war, while thousands of our soldiers are in captivity, we must remember them and do everything to bring them back to their native land.
To do this, we need to take more prisoners. Should they be kept in human conditions? I think so. It can be compared that only now our prisoners have become more loyal. Recent exchanges have shown that they have at least begun to be fed. Sometimes they were given medicines, they were less tortured.
Will this situation be aggravated by the killing of prisoners at the front by our military? Yes.
Karma can find occupiers
What to do, how to react? My opinion is subjective, but I believe that a special unit should be created in Ukraine, which will find and punish war criminals after the war. Nobody should escape punishment.
Each of them must understand: if he commits a war crime, he will be found and punished in any case, in any corner of the planet. No one will be punished for him, namely he.
They don't give a damn about their brothers. They don't care what kind of video a similar Russian prisoner will be killed somewhere. But we are not them. We may have misunderstandings, we may be angry with each other, but we are united in front of a common enemy.
Once, during interrogations, FSB officers persuaded me to cooperate and said that everything would be fine with me if I handed over the Mariupol Terodefense and said that they shot civilians, because they would definitely hand me over.
I clearly answered that I may have a personal opinion regarding certain units, but this is our internal matter, which does not concern Russia. I said that they would not receive any evidence from me regarding other divisions.
Therefore, I think, first of all, we need to think about the general, about an early victory, about the liberation of territories and prisoners. And then find everyone who killed, raped, tortured Ukrainians, and bring justice under the laws of war.
