The Ukrainian army has paraded Russian prisoners of war in front of press cameras in the latest embarrassment to Vladimir Putin as casualties in the war continue to mount.
In an attempt to prove its claim of capturing significant numbers of Russian soldiers, officials in Ukraine have organised for groups of POWs to be presented in a number of press conferences.
It comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces attempt to combat Russian propaganda, including claims the war is a ‘special operation’ and that Zelensky had fled the country.
Images show a group of three Russians, believed to hold military ranks, sitting behind a table in a press briefing run by the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (UNIAN).
In an attempt to prove its claim of capturing significant numbers of Russian soldiers, officials in Ukraine have organised for groups of POWs to be presented in a number of press conferences
Images show a group of three Russians, believed to hold military ranks, sitting behind a table in a press briefing run by the Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (UNIAN). A masked Ukrainian soldier sits with a rifle in between his legs nearby
Two of the troops are seen to be visibly injured, one with wounds on his face and another nursing a black eye.
A masked Ukrainian soldier sits with a rifle in between his legs facing them nearby.
Under rules for the treatment of prisoners of war in the Geneva Conventions, a military power should not parade prisoners for ‘public curiosity’.
It is not known what questions the men were asked at the press conference.
The sight of POWs being presented to the media are a frequent occurrence, with captured soldiers in another reported conference reading out statements that admit the Russian offensive had suffered setbacks early in the war.
‘The whole column burned,’ said one soldier with a Russian tank unit.
Two of the troops are seen to be visibly injured, one with wounds on his face and another nursing a black eye
Ukraine’s military said Russia today renewed its assault ‘on all fronts’, with paratroopers landing in Kharkiv, tanks and trucks rolling into the centre of Kherson, and strikes in Mariupol and Zhytomyr
He said his unit was attacked with what he believed to be projectiles from a drone and shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles near Sumy, in northeastern Ukraine.
He fled from the unit into a forest and later surrendered to Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine claims that around 9,000 Russians have been killed or captured in the conflict so far. Russia disputes the figures, claiming to have suffered far fewer losses than Ukraine.
It comes as Ukraine released the names of more than 100 Russian prisoners of war captured during the ongoing conflict in the country, urging their mothers to come and ‘take your sons’ home.
Anton Herashchenko, advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs, published the ‘very important’ list of POWs on Facebook on Friday, according to Newsweek.
Captured Russian soldiers have been filmed describing themselves as ‘cannon fodder’ and warning ‘everyone is going in columns and they all die’
The post included a spreadsheet containing personal details of the Russian soldiers, as well as specific details on how their families can travel to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to collect them.
Ukraine on Wednesday invited the worried mothers of Russian troops captured on the battlefield to come and collect their sons, in Kyiv’s latest apparent attempt to embarrass Moscow after opening a telephone hotline for Russian parents to find out if their sons are among the dead or captured.
Dozens of video uploaded to social media show wounded and captured Russians saying they had no idea they were being sent to invade Ukraine and were used like ‘cannon fodder’ by commanders who threw them into battle against ‘peaceful people defending their territory’.
‘No one has attacked us and what Russia wants from the war, I cannot understand. Mum, Dad, I love you,’ one said.
At least one of the soldiers urged Kyiv and Moscow to evacuate children from the warzone while another warned ‘no-one wants war’.
This handout picture released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on March 5, 2022, shows what is said the wreckage of a Russian military aircraft on the outskirts of the city of Chernihiv
Local resident walks through the rubble as a result of shelling in Markhalivka, March 5, 2022
Meanwhile a handcuffed prisoner of war burst into tears and was filmed wiping his eyes after what sounded like a female relative told him ‘I love you’ down the phone.
He went on to urge the person to call for the end to the war because ‘to these b****es it’s just a case of killing everyone’.
The young soldier also appeared to shed tears for those who die on the battlefield because ‘they have no funeral’.
‘You don’t touch the corpses because otherwise the FSB (Russian federal security service) will arrest you,’ he said.
Another soldier, injured during the fighting, was positioned in front of a Ukrainian flag as he spoke to the camera.
He maintained the claim his troops did not know they were about the invade Ukraine and urged Moscow to end the conflict.
‘We are killing peaceful people,’ he said. ‘This is not our war. Mothers and wives, collect your husbands. There is no need to be here.’
