Russians take Ukrainian POWs - Initial Thoughts

Ostensibly, this video shows Russian forces capturing Ukrainian soldiers and performing the initial POW search. I still need to get this video translated.

A couple of thoughts:

• The most dangerous moment for a prisoner is the initial capture. Emotions are high. The Ukrainian soldiers are doing a good job of not antagonizing their captors.

• Around 10 seconds, you see some light hitting or slapping of the mustached prisoner. Not saying it’s right, but it could be worse, and that kind of rough treatment should be expected at point of capture. It looks like it doesn’t go beyond that.

  • I probably would have corrected whoever did that and kept them away from prisoners after that incident. When you let light slapping or hitting slide, you just set a new standard for even harsher treatment of prisoners later. And that is how you end up with a dead prisoner.

• Around 29 seconds, the man with the mustache gives up his wallet and some other possession. That second, green possession may be a phone or a glasses container. I can’t tell from the video.

  • Soldiers are supposed to be able to retain personal effects - Wallets, personal pictures, ID cards, badges of rank and religious items. Nobody is keeping a phone. I am unsure whether the Russians are stealing or taking the items and bagging them for safekeeping during the search. Again, this will probably come out in translation. Once these items are taken from the prisoner during the search, they are supposed to be given back.

• Note that as per the Geneva Convention, soldiers are allowed to keep movable possessions. They are also allowed to keep “metal helmets and gas masks” . Note that this was developed before modern body armor, so Russia may be following the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law. It would be reasonable to let a soldier keep a Kevlar helmet or flack jacket / body armor.

  • US policy is to return helmets, masks and flack jackets immediately after the search, or in a timely manner once they reach a detention facility.

• Some of these soldiers may be wounded. Around 1:29 one soldier may be wounded in the knee. This may also be somebody else’s blood.

  I believe the event occurred in this city of Novomikhailovka.

  

  And I think it occurred here in the woodline on the south side of a field.

  

  I’ll try to get a video analysis up once I can get this translated.