November 7 The Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that the Ukrainian soldiers of the first unit of the “Bogdan Khmelnytskyi” battalion, made up of former Ukrainian prisoners of war, have sworn allegiance to Russia and will soon be deployed in Ukraine.
According to a propaganda Russian news agency, the battalion operates as part of the so-called Kaskad formation of the Donetsk People’s Republic, suggesting that the prisoners of war will be deployed in the border zone of the Donetsk-Zaporizhia region, where Kaskad is reported to be operating.
Russian sources said that the Russian leadership would treat the POWs in the same way as Russian soldiers and that they would receive similar pay and benefits, ISW experts wrote.
Earlier, the Military Research Institute published claims by Russian state media that Moscow forces had “recruited” up to 70 Ukrainian prisoners of war from various Russian correctional colonies to serve in the “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” battalion.
The Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War prohibits the use of prisoners of war in hostilities by the host power. It states that “no prisoner of war shall ever be sent to or detained in areas where he may be exposed to the fire of a combat zone” and shall not be “employed in work of an unhealthy or dangerous nature.”
Other analyst insights:
- The Ukrainian army has deployed armored personnel carriers on the left bank of the Kherson region. Now up to several hundred Ukrainian military personnel can operate there;
- November 7 Ukrainian forces carried out counterattack operations near Bakhmut and in the western region of Zaporizhia.
- A prominent pro-Russian military blogger, usually optimistic about Russia’s capabilities, expressed a rather pessimistic view of the war, stressing that the Kremlin must fully mobilize Russia’s economy and defense industrial base to win.
- Russian authorities have detained the deputy interior minister of the Republic of Dagestan on corruption charges, likely to show that the federal government is taking action in Dagestan without paying more attention to inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions and a tendency towards destabilization in the region.
- November 4 A Ukrainian strike on a Russian shipyard in Kerch, occupied Crimea, severely damaged a Russian Black Sea Fleet warship.
- Russian forces carried out offensive operations along the line Kupyansk-Svatovye-Kremina, near Bakhmut, near Avdijivka, west and southwest of the city of Donetsk, in the border zone of the Donetsk-Zaporizhia region, in the eastern Zaporizhia region and in the western Zaporizhia region, and reportedly advanced in some areas forward.
- Maria Lvova-Belova, the Kremlin-appointed commissioner for children’s rights, promoted several benefit schemes for children of occupied Ukraine under the strategic program “Country for Children”.
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2024-09-29 04:50:09