Follow up
Foreign fighters in Ukraine have confirmed to the BBC that they have been ordered to kill Russian prisoners of war, “whether they surrender or not”.
A fighter named Reese, 27, who is Irish, said that he fled to Poland less than a week following arriving in Ukraine, noting that following our arrival we passed through 3 military checkpoints, and the army boarded the bus and things were serious and they checked our identities.
He continued, “As for the elements at the fourth checkpoint, which was affiliated with the Ukrainian secret police service, they were not friendly with us and doubted us and accused us of being spies for Russia, which is absolutely not true.”
He added: They asked us to hand over our passports and phones, and I refused. From this point on, the suspicions regarding me increased in particular. I knew that if I handed them over my passport, I would not go back to my country.
He stated that one person who crossed with us signed an employment contract with the Ukrainian army did not mind and accepted the reality of what would happen following this contract was signed.
He revealed that he decided to leave Ukraine following the orders he had initially received changed, which is that if Russian soldiers were arrested or surrendered during the battles, they would become prisoners of war and we would start interrogating them. They surrendered or not.
These statements were confirmed by the British military paramedic Matt Spading, noting that the situation in the field is very different, in addition to two soldiers who refused to reveal their identities.
The BBC said that despite the continued flow of foreign volunteers to fight alongside the Ukrainian army once morest Russia, dozens of them had recently returned to their country; This is due to the orders they received from the Ukrainian forces regarding the handling of Russian prisoners of war, as well as details in their contracts of employment in the field.
