Captured Russian troops have been proven on video sobbing as they apologized for killing Ukrainian civilians, together with youngsters — and admitted that the invasion ordered by President Vladimir Putin was a “terrible mistake.”
“I apologize for myself, for my squad to every home, to every street, to every citizen of Ukraine, to the elderly, to women, to children for our invasion of these lands,” one of many troopers, Galkin Sergey Alekseevich, 34, mentioned throughout an emotional press convention, according to a translation by the Sun.
“I gravely apologize for our treacherous invasion. To the generalship of our military units, I would like to say one thing — that they’ve acted cowardly, that they acted traitorously to us,” he mentioned.
“I would like to say to all regiments of the Russian army: Lay down your arms,” Alekseevich added. “And Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, stop further combat actions. Stop bombings, stop sending soldiers here to kill civilians, to perform airstrikes.”
It is believed that Alekseevich was one among seven reconnaissance officers captured final week, in response to the Sun.
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Another soldier, Maksim Chernik of the Russian sixteenth Motorized Rifle Brigade, mentioned “it was a terrible feeling to realize what a mistake we had made,” the Daily Mail reported.
“Simply understanding that all this has to be fixed, the relations have to be improved somehow,” he mentioned. “This will take more than one year. It will take decades, maybe centuries. I simply don’t want to exist after all of this after what’s going on here.”
Footage of the captured servicemen emerged as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky known as on Russian troops to give up, saying in his nightly TV deal with that they’ve suffered worse losses throughout their invasion of his nation than through the Chechnya battle.
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“I know that you want to survive,” he mentioned, according to the BBC, including that those that surrendered can be handled “as people — decently.”
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine had been anticipated to proceed Tuesday, with Zelensky saying that “pretty good” progress had been made up to now.
Footage of captured Russian troopers has raised questions on whether or not Ukraine is violating the Geneva Conventions, which give POWs with protections.
According to Article 13: “Prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.”
Andrew Stroehlein, a human rights activist who serves as European media director of Human Rights Watch, mentioned in a current tweet that “humiliating or making POWs a topic of public curiosity or ridicule is strictly prohibited by the legal guidelines of conflict.
“Although it may seem in some videos that POWs are free to speak as they wish, they are held captive by another military force, and it’s almost impossible to judge from one video the conditions they face,” he wrote.
Stroehlein mentioned “this prohibition protects families of soldiers back in their home country who may face retaliation if it is known that their family members have been captured,” he continued.
“These rules apply equally to #Ukrainian forces that capture Russian soldiers, and #Russian forces that capture Ukrainian soldiers.”
