Prigozhin announced the death of captured Ukrainians held by the Wagner Group

Prigozhin blamed the UAF for their murder, but de facto confessed to committing a war crime.

Yevgeny Prigozhin announced the death of Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were held by the Wagner Group belonging to him. In his statement , the cause of the incident, he called the alleged shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the place of detention of prisoners.

According to Prigozhin, after his group stopped taking prisoners, it still had a certain number of previously captured Ukrainians at its disposal. They were allegedly going to be exchanged in the future.

“The Hymars have just flown over this object. How many prisoners died – we will figure it out,” he said.

Prigozhin promised to provide more detailed information within the next few hours. He also stated that the investigative team called in should establish the type of ammunition that arrived and the direction of fire.

It should be emphasized that, according to article 19 of the 1949 Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War , keeping prisoners in the front line is in itself a violation.

“As soon as possible after their capture, prisoners of war shall be evacuated to camps located far enough from the war zone to be safe. (…) Prisoners of war should not be unnecessarily endangered pending their evacuation from the zone hostilities,” the convention says.

Ukrainians captured by Wagner

At the end of April , Yevgeny Prigozhin announced that he had instructed his mercenaries not to take Ukrainian soldiers prisoner, even if they voluntarily surrender. He called the reason for a certain interception of a conversation in which Ukrainians allegedly discuss the murder of captured Wagnerites.

A couple of weeks before that, a video appeared on the network, which depicted the brutal execution of a captured Ukrainian soldier. The executioners were allegedly Wagner Group mercenaries.

(C)UNIAN 2023