Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ At least 133 Russians POWs freed from Ukrainian captivity are reported to have have died or gone missing in action after being sent back to the front lines, in violation of the Geneva Conventions. Some are said to have been executed. ⬇️

2/ As previously reported, returning POWs are being treated harshly by the Russian authorities and are often sent straight back into combat, without even a family reunion. New research by Verstka illustrates their fate.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1940668804465561957

3/ Data from the 'I Want to Live' project identifies a total of 133 people from 49 Russian regions and three occupied regions of Ukraine. They comprise a mixture of mobilised men, career military and Wagner Group mercenaries.

4/ Of the 133, 71 people – more than half – died within a year of returning from captivity. The harshest treatment appears to have been reserved for Wagner Group POWs, most notoriously in the case of Yevgeny Nushin.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1943951357154672661

5/ Wagnerite Viktor Strebkov has spoken on camera of seeing returning POWs being publicly executed.

6/ "There were two people from my company who had previously been captured, they were exchanged, they returned to the unit and they were brought back to Bohdanivka [near Bakhmut] to continue participating in the fighting.

7/ "When we were standing in formation, [the company commander with the call sign] "Black" approached one of them, call sign "Nephew," and started saying, who are you, what are you, why did you surrender, why didn't you cut off your own head if you ran out of grenades.

8/ "At that moment, "Black" takes out a pistol and shoots him point-blank in the chest. 'Nephew' falls, convulsing on the ground, he finishes him off in the head.

9/ "He demonstratively gives his subordinates the order to undress him, put him on a stretcher and drag him into the swamp. At that moment, we continue to stand in formation."

10/ An army source says that the Russian Ministry of Defence sends POWs back to their positions almost immediately after their release, regardless of position, rank and length of service. They are "monitored so that they do not get captured again or leak any information."

11/ "Even when they did not voluntarily surrender, or, for example, the situation forced them to face either death or be captured, they are still taken under control as unreliable people, in the sense that they can be recruited [by Ukraine] after leaving captivity and so on."

12/ According to the 'Go to the Forest' dissident group, returning POWs are subjected to FSB interrogations to assess their reliability before being returned to the front. This recalls similar practices in the Stalin era, when POWs were regarded as potential or actual traitors.

13/ If a unit surrenders, its returning members may be punished by being sent to their deaths in a 'meat assault' in which survival is unlikely.

14/ "Let's say a unit was sitting in a position and the entire unit simply surrendered without a fight, then yes, there will be a lot of questions for them and they will most likely be sent to a meat assault," says Verstka's source.

15/ "Such situations, where it is obvious that a person voluntarily left the position, well, you could say, surrendered through captivity. In the minds of officers, it looks like this. They will not stand on ceremony with them and will simply be sent to such assaults." /end

Source:
verstka.media/pochemu-ty-sda…