Evidence of the torture and killing of Ukrainian prisoners by Kremlin-backed fighters is growing, prompting a strong statement by Amnesty International on April 9.
The statement from the human rights organization follows testimony that Russian mercenary Arseniy Pavlov, also known as Motorola, killed Ukrainian prisoner of war Ihor Branovytsky. The Russian citizen also admitted in a telephone conversation with the Kyiv Post that he had murdered 15 prisoners.
The confession adds to a growing body of evidence that Ukrainian prisioners are killed by their captors, while others are tortured and humiliated, nearly two months after the Minsk II peace agreement in February called for the release of all prisoners from both sides.
“Shocking new evidence of ‘execution-style killings’ by pro-Russian armed groups in the Donbas, eastern Ukraine, illustrates the urgent need for action to tackle the escalating human rights and humanitarian crisis in the area,” Amnesty wrote. “The torture, ill-treatment and killing of captured, surrendered or wounded soldiers are war crimes. These claims must be promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigated, and the perpetrators prosecuted in fair trials by recognized authorities.”
Specifically, Amnesty referred to Branovytsky’s murder and Motorola’s claim that he killed 15 prisoners.
Former Ukrainian prisoner of war Yury Sova told the Kyiv Post that on Jan. 21 he had seen Motorola kill Branovytsky, a Ukrainian soldier taken prisoner by the Russian militant’s Sparta Battalion at Donetsk Airport.
Other witnesses have confirmed the report.
Sova said that he, Branovytsky and other prisoners had been beaten by Motorola’s people in sessions lasting six to seven hours. A YouTube video posted on Jan. 21 shows that Branovytsky’s face is bloodied and bruised.
When the Kyiv Post asked Motorola to comment on Branovytsky’s murder by phone, he replied: “I don’t give a fuck about what I am accused of, believe it or not. I shot 15 prisoners dead. I don’t give a fuck. No comment. I kill if I want to. I don’t if I don’t.”
The Security Service of Ukraine is currently investigating a murder and torture case against Motorola under the crimes against humanity article.
Amnesty also said that it had found videos documenting the captivity, and pictures of the dead bodies, of at least three Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian-backed forces in Donetsk Oblast’s Debaltseve in February and reportedly being held in a morgue in Donetsk. There are signs of bullet wounds to their heads and upper parts of their bodies, apparently the result of execution-style killings, Amnesty said.
The Amnesty report follows other cases of abuse by Russian-backed fighters.
Soldiers came to the memorial service for Ihor Branovytsky at the Mikhailovsky Cathedral on April 3.
Tetiana Rychkova, a volunteer helping Ukrainian troops and an assistant to the General Staff’s head, said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda published on April 6 that a separatist leader known as “Givi” had killed a Ukrainian prisoner.
In January several videos were published on YouTube that show separatists beating and humiliating captured Ukrainian soldiers, as well as prisoners with signs of torture and dead prisoners in the village of Krasny Partizan in Donetsk Oblast. One of the videos shows a Kremlin-backed fighter threatening to kill a prisoner and then the dead body of the prisoner.
Other videos released in January show a separatist commander “Givi” hitting the head of a captured Ukrainian soldier with a gun and Russian-backed fighters parading and humiliating prisoners in Donetsk.
Meanwhile, Mashable reported in October that it had uncovered evidence suggesting that separatists carried out executions in eastern Ukraine. Documents recovered inside the former Security Service of Ukraine building in Slovyansk show that it served as a place for secret trials by separatists in which at least three prisoners were sentenced to death by firing squad, Mashable reported.
One of the first possible war crimes by separatists happened in April 2014, when the bodies of Volodymyr Rybak, a local pro-Ukrainian activist, and Yury Popravko, a Ukrainian student, were discovered near a river outside Donetsk. The bodies showed signs of being tortured before they were drowned.
