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Apti Alaudinov, Deputy Head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Commander of the Chechen “Akhmat” unit, called the information about the execution of 9 Ukrainian servicemen captured in the Kursk region on October 10 false.
He claimed on the October 15 broadcast of Solovyev Live that the Ukrainian side spreads such false information “to prevent the surrender of its servicemen to the Russian armed forces.“
Fact Investigation Platform examined the publications and official statements of the Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels on the matter.
What do we know about the incident?
On October 13, the Ukrainian Deep State Telegram channel, referring to its source in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, circulated information about the shooting of 9 Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation.
According to the Telegram channel, the incident took place on October 10. The publication also presented the exact geographical coordinates of the incident attaching the photo of the killed prisoners of war.
In addition, to confirm this information, Deep State published a photo taken from above depicting the half-naked bodies of Ukrainian soldiers lying face down on the ground.
Accordingly, the incident took place near the Shlyakh settlement of Zelyon region. The captured prisoners of war were drone operators of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who according to the source, had surrendered to the Russian units as they lacked enough weapons and ammunition for resistance.
Later, Ukrainian human rights defender Dmytro Lubinets also shared the information on his Telegram channel, condemning the action of the Russian Armed Forces and stating that what happened was a gross violation of the Geneva Convention.
In the meantime, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine announced that criminal proceedings were initiated with respect to the incident.
The excitement and justifications by Z channels regarding the incident
Russian propagandist and military blogger Yuri Podoliaka was the first to react to the incident in his 3 million subscriber “World Today with Yuri Podoliaka” Telegram channel. He made the publication about half an hour after Deep State’s publication.
Podoliaka wrote that the Russian side invaded the rear of the Ukrainian armed forces with small forces, and if they had captured instead of killing the Ukrainian servicemen, they would have “failed the combat task․“
The Z propagandist (in the war against Ukraine, the Russian side used the Latin letters Z and V on its armored vehicles as symbols of the attack directions, which is why the Russian propagandists of the war are also called Z bloggers or Z propagandists, – ed.), justifying the killing of servicemen, noted that drone operators “are treated in much the same way as marskmen on the front lines today.” According to the blogger, “they just don’t get captured.”
Another propaganda telegram channel Starshe Eddy (Старше Эдды) with 627 thousand subscribers, drawing parallels with the World War II, noted that instead of being captured, the servicemen of some German units were shot. Reacting to the incident, the channel wrote that “it’s good, but it’s not enough,” and also suggested asking the residents of Belgorod what their reaction would be if the captured Ukrainian servicemen were later released.
The propaganda channel Rybar (Рыбарь) with 1.3 million subscribers wrote that “humanitarian nonsense should be put aside.” It suggested listening to Russia’s official statements according to which the Ukrainians who invaded Kursk are terrorists.
The channel, justifying the actions of the Russian units, also wrote that the prisoners of war “can be killed during the heated battle, at the moment when they try to escape or seize weapons or when they become an unnecessary burden.”
Thus, the Ukrainian Telegram channel shared substantiated information about the killing of Ukrainians which was later confirmed by the Human Rights Defender of the country. Immediately after the information was circulated, the largest Russian propaganda channels close to the military-political leadership started justifying the action of the Russian armed forces, confirming the information of the Ukrainian side that the killed were prisoners of war.
And only days after the information was circulated, without clear substantiation or facts, the Ministry of Defense of Russia called it false, contradicting not only the Ukrainian, but also the Z channels that are close to it.
Note: The Third Geneva Convention was adopted in 1949 and deals with the protection of prisoners of war during war. It defines the treatment of prisoners of war, their rights, duties and obligations, as well as the conditions in which they are to be kept.
The Convention prohibits the punishment of prisoners of war: punitive actions, physical or psychological violence against prisoners of war are strictly prohibited.
Nane Manasyan
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