When Ukrainian troops stormed into Russia’s Kursk region on August 6, Moscow’s soldiers were so surprised that they put up little resistance. “They were kids between 18 and 24 years old, they didn’t expect to see us here and they left very quickly. Some tried to shoot, but it ended badly.”says soldier “Zherar,” returning to Sumy, eastern Ukraine, after three weeks in Kursk. This 39-year-old Belarusian, who calls himself by his nom de guerre, is part of the 225my assault battalion, the first to have penetrated enemy territory.
The man, who was awarded several medals by kyiv for his fight alongside the Ukrainians, is the commander of the TUR unit, in charge of evacuating and repairing military vehicles damaged during the fighting. He says he is satisfied: “This is the most effective operation since the beginning of the large-scale invasion. he assures, sitting in a restaurant in Sumy. The ratio is one Ukrainian soldier killed for every fifty-four Russian soldiers, and more than two thousand have been captured., details the soldier, who is said ” surprised “ that the president, Volodymyr Zelensky, reported only 600 prisoners of war.
Although the capture of numerous Russian soldiers was not the main objective of the Kursk offensive, the authorities considered it a success. The Ukrainian President himself welcomed the fact that this allowed “replenish” TO “exchange fund”. In fact, prisoner exchanges with Russia have accelerated since the raid began: the two countries released a total of 267 prisoners of war each in three separate exchanges.
In “unofficial or transit places”
As stated in the Geneva Conventions, which govern the conduct of armed conflicts, Ukraine is obliged to “treat with humanity” their captives. However, a report from Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), published on Tuesday 1Ahem October reveals that this is not always the case. Of the 205 Russian prisoners of war interrogated by the organization between 1Ahem March 2023 and August 31, 2024, 104 reported having suffered “acts of torture or other forms of ill-treatment”. It is unknown if any of them were captured during the Kursk operation.
This violence was perpetrated mainly at the beginning of his captivity, in “unofficial or transit places, including garages, basements or private homes”before detainees are transferred to one of fifteen official detention centers, in turn under the authority of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine. The report specifies, however, that“with rare exceptions”these mistreatments have “it ceased when the prisoners reached official places of detention, where conditions generally appeared to meet international standards.”.
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