By Jerry Ginsberg, US Friends of the Soviet People
Caspar Grosse, a medic in an international volunteer unit in Ukraine, said he wrote this journal entry in October after a fellow soldier, known as Zeus, recounted executing a Russian prisoner. Credit…New York Times via Caspar Grosse
Reports of cases of the Chosen Company, a volunteer group of international soldiers, killing Russian soldiers that had already surrendered in combat reveal misconduct of war-time standards of the Genova Accords by the group under the Ukrainian military.
Article Photo: A German field medic, Caspar Grosse of the Chosen Company, gave a horrifying report of several incidents of killings committed by the mercenary group that involved surrendered Russian soldiers and prisoners of war. His accounts of these incidents are supported by his contemporaneous notes, video footage, and text messages exchanged by unit members and reviewed by the New York Times.
The first incident, given by Grosse, tells of a Russian soldier crawling through a nearly destroyed trench, wounded and unarmed, seeking help from his captors. He saw the soldier plead for medical attention in broken English and Russian.
That is when, Grosse said, another soldier came over and fired his weapon into the Russian soldier’s torso. Then a different soldier came up and shot the Russian soldier in the head.
In another incident, a Chosen member threw a grenade and killed a surrendering Russian soldier who had his hands raised, video footage reviewed by the Times shows. The Ukrainian military, wanting to promote their war efforts, released the same video, but edited out the surrender portion.
In the last incident given by Grosse, Chosen members boasted in a group chat about killing Russian prisoners of war during a mission in October, text messages show. A soldier who was briefly in command that day alluded to the killings using a slang word for shooting. He said he would take responsibility.
There have been no promises of investigations by the Ukrainian military to look into these killings. The footage released by the Ukrainian military would merit an investigation under the American military standards which is supposed to follow the Genova Convention standards, like the Ukrainian military.
The New York Times investigated a video given by the foreign unit’s commander, Ryan O’Leary, a former US Army National Guardsman from Iowa, that he claimed gave evidence that the lobbed grenade was warranted in combat. The Times reports that the video leaves unanswered questions about what Chosen members saw or considered threats before the attempted surrender.
Reports from other former members of the military group confirm these allegations of misconduct in war that violate the Genova Convention’s standards for surrendering soldiers and prisoners of war.
The evidence clearly shows war crimes committed by the Chosen Company and that the fascist Ukrainian government not only allowed these unlawful episodes but is now protecting the soldiers from an investigation.
Since February 2022, the Russian military operation against NATO-backed Ukraine has continued to liberate the Ukrainian people from NATO and fascism.
To read the original report by the New York Times: https://www.ekathimerini.com/nytimes/1243406/in-ukraine-killings-of-surrendering-russians-divide-an-american-led-unit/
