Hired guns are suspected of executing Russian POWs in Ukraine, the Investigative Committee has said
A Russian investigator working in the city of Vasilyevka in Zaporozhye Region. © Sputnik
Russia’s Investigative Committee has announced that it will investigate alleged war crimes committed by French mercenaries fighting for Ukraine against Russian forces.
The agency claimed on Telegram on Wednesday that French citizens have been operating in the infamous Azov nationalist battalion and the 92nd Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
One of the French mercenaries “has published a photo of the execution of three Russian prisoners, who were shot at point-blank range,” the statement read.
“The Investigative Committee will establish all the circumstances of the incident in order to bring to justice those involved in the crime,” the agency added.
Earlier this week, French outlet Mediapart reported that, according to the country’s intelligence services, some 400 French citizens have traveled to Ukraine since the conflict between Moscow and Kiev started in late February 2022. At least 100 of them have taken part in the fighting, including around 30 members of far-right movements, it added.
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Last week, two Frenchmen were detained at the Bercy bus station in Paris after returning from Ukraine. They were hit with 15-month prison terms, nine months of which were suspended, for having illegal weapons parts on them, according to Le Parisien newspaper.
On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said that up to 60 members of the so-called ‘Georgian Legion’ were killed and 20 others wounded in a strike on the Ukrainian-held town of Konstantinovka in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic.
The eliminated fighters “were involved in the brutal torture and murder of Russian servicemen near Kiev in March last year,” the ministry claimed.
Thousands of foreign fighters from Poland, Canada, the US, the UK, France, the former Soviet Republics and elsewhere are estimated to have traveled to Ukraine after the outbreak of the conflict with Russia. However, according to the Russian military, most of them have since fled the country.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in the fall that around 1,000 foreign mercenaries were still fighting, while more than 2,000 of them have been killed.
READ MORE: Videos showing executed Russian POWs in Ukraine are authentic – NYT
Moscow has warned throughout the conflict that mercenaries are not viewed as combatants under international law and “the best thing that awaits them if they are captured alive is a trial and maximum prison terms.”
