Russia’s Investigative Committee has announced it will probe war crimes allegedly committed by a mercenary unit fighting for Ukraine, as Moscow accuses the West of ignoring Kiev's human rights violations in the war.
On Saturday, the New York Times published a report describing Russian prisoners of war being executed by the so-called Chosen Company – an international mercenary unit led by a former US Army National Guard soldier. In one incident, a seriously injured Russian serviceman was allegedly killed while surrendering and pleading for help.
“Investigators of the Russian Investigative Committee will look into more crimes by Ukraine’s armed formations,” the agency stated on their Telegram channel on Saturday, noting that “information is being circulated in the media about a crime committed against a wounded Russian prisoner of war who was killed with a shot to the head”.
Earlier in the day, Russia’s ambassador-at-large for Ukraine’s crimes, Rodion Miroshnik, said that “all the data cited by the publication will be verified and analyzed” by law enforcement agencies. He added that Moscow would also demand that international organizations with representatives in Ukraine verify the information, which, if confirmed, would qualify “as a violation of key norms and principles of humanitarian law, amounting to war crimes”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the NYT article, noting that although the atrocities of the Kiev regime have long been known, the US media previously chose to ignore multiple reports of human rights violations submitted by the Russian Foreign Ministry and circulated in the UN Security Council.
“It is amusing to watch how American journalists and media platforms pretend they knew nothing about the abuse of the peaceful population of Donbass, now new Russian regions, by the Kiev regime. They act as if they are unaware of the torture inflicted on people by the Ukrainian army and security forces. Ridiculous,” Zakharova stated in an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, published on Sunday.
Last year, Moscow launched an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by French mercenaries, after a photo surfaced showing three Russian POWs who were shot at point-blank range.
According to the Investigative Committee, more than 3,100 foreign mercenaries are currently fighting in Ukraine, most of them US, Canadian and British citizens. Moscow has repeatedly warned that mercenaries are not viewed as combatants under international law and “the best thing” they can hope for if captured alive is “a trial and maximum prison terms”.