Can Russia still be treated as a civilized state, or is it already a terrorist country that allows its soldiers to behave worthy of war crimes?

After several years of absence, today’s article is my first for SOFREP in some time. When commenting on armed conflicts, I rather looked at them from the perspective of what I experienced during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, from a historical point of view. The current war, the one in Ukraine, is taking place in the immediate vicinity of Poland and the Poles. I comment on it, witnessing a story going on, a story as cruel as the one our grandparents told us about when they recalled the Second World War.

Putin’s troops (I don’t want to blame all Russians) fighting in Ukraine make themselves known as the worst side by inflicting cruelty that does entitle one to call himself a soldier.  They mindlessly kill civilians, rape women, do not spare the elderly, and destroy hospitals, schools, community centers, and churches, there is no holiness for them.

In recent days, a video has been uploaded to the internet and social media showing the probable mutilation of a Ukrainian prisoner of war. The film shows a Ukrainian soldier captured and subdued. He lies on the ground with his mouth taped and his hands tied. Above him stands a man in a Russian military uniform, with the letter “Z” sewn on, which is a symbol of the invasion of Ukraine. First, he cuts the uniform of the soldier with a knife, and then mutilates a man in the perineum area…, shouting humiliating curses at him in Russian. It is difficult for Internet users to determine when and where this video was shot, but many of them recognize the perpetrator by a characteristic hat with tassels, this man previously appeared in a recording from the Azot chemical plant in Severdonetsk.

It is ridiculous that the torture video comes from the Russian media, where Ossian propagandists delightfully show how a group of sadists mutilated a Ukrainian prisoner. What should the world think of Russian soldiers now? About Putin’s country, where his soldiers enjoy torture and assassinations?

“The fog of war will not help the executioners to escape punishment. We will identify and catch everyone,” Mykhailo Podolak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, wrote on Twitter.

In material published on the RIA Novosti Telegram channel, the Russian news agency identified the man as a member of the Chechen battalion known as the “Akhmat.”

What can the world do now? -not much… Ukrainian civil rights spokeswoman Lyudmyla Denysova appealed to the UN Commission on Human Rights to investigate reports of the torture of prisoners of war in the hands of Russians. For example, most of the Ukrainian soldiers who were taken prisoner in the vicinity of Mariupol were transferred to the Donetsk detention center and correctional colony No. 120, which is located in temporarily occupied territory. During the transport, Ukrainian soldiers had their eyes covered, their hands tied, and bags were put on their heads. After being brought to their destination, they were tortured, threatened with death, beaten, and humiliated. Officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and soldiers of the Azov Special Forces are treated even worse, they are tortured with extreme cruelty. After their release, Ukrainian prisoners of war report that they were beaten all over their bodies, had rifle barrels forced into wounds to open them again, pinched with pliers, and strangled. In addition, some were electrocuted, beaten with batons, and repeatedly kicked on the genitals.

Being a soldier and now a veteran, reading and reading reports that are just as cruel as those given by the Nazis during the Second World War, I ask; “How is this possible in the Twenty-First Century? Has our civilization learned nothing from suffering from previous wars?”

Russia seems to have remained at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, not wanting to adopt the current social norms.

 

Naval served in GROM, the Polish Special Forces unit for fourteen years as an operator in a combat unit. Most of his time in the unit he spent on foreign missions. He was decorated with the highest combat medals awarded in Poland for personal valor, including the Knight’s Cross of the Military Cross, granted for outstanding military merits, and the Commander’s Cross of the Military Cross, granted for most outstanding valor with risking one’s life. He also holds the Grom Gold Badge, which is most honored by the GROM personnel. He is the author of two books about his experiences in war, “Camp Pozzi: GROM in Iraq” and, “Surviving Belize: Death Defying Special Forces Training in Central American Jungle”