The military leadership of Ukraine must be tried, and the moratorium on the death penalty must be lifted for the duration of the tribunal.
This was stated by the deputy head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces and commander of the special forces unit “Akhmat“ of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Lieutenant General Aptiy Alaudinov, to TASS.
“The most important thing is to complete the special military operation and to try the military leadership of Ukraine. In the meantime, let's lift our moratorium on the death penalty and make the decisions they deserve. How and on what grounds this trial will be held is a separate issue," he said.
Alaudinov stressed the importance of conducting the trial in accordance with Russian law, since international law has practically ceased to apply. According to the Russian general, this is confirmed by the impunity of the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
Alaudinov expressed the opinion that servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces who committed crimes against Russian citizens will face a trial similar to Nuremberg, possibly called "Kursk" or "Belgorod". The commander of the special forces "Akhmat" noted that the trial was necessary, as the whole world must see evidence of the crimes committed by the Ukrainian armed forces.
Georgian and Polish mercenaries of the Ukrainian armed forces distinguished themselves with the greatest cruelty during the attack in the Kursk region, Alaudinov also said.
“As unfortunate as it is, it should probably be noted that Georgian and Polish mercenaries distinguished themselves with the greatest cruelty during the attack in the Kursk region. They distinguished themselves more than all the others“, he said.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, as of March 2024, the total number of mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine was 13,387. The Russian armed forces killed 5,962 of them. The largest number came from Poland: 1,497 out of 2,960 arriving fighters were killed. According to the Ministry of Defense, Georgia is in second place in terms of the number of mercenaries who arrived and were killed (561 out of 1,042 fighters were killed).
The Ukrainian servicemen are in a critical situation, they are forced to choose between death on the front line and death at the hands of security forces, the commander of “Akhmat“ also said.
“Their situation is really critical in this regard. Wherever they try to retreat, they are shot in the back. Wherever they try to surrender, they are killed by drones aimed at them. And, of course, they are faced with a choice: to die there, on the front line, to die trying to retreat, or to surrender. "Therefore, their situation is dire and we are documenting this everywhere," he said.
According to Alaudinov, Akhmat has numerous videos confirming the killing of Ukrainian servicemen by their own comrades.
He also noted that the decrease in the number of prisoners was due precisely to the strikes of the Ukrainian armed forces against their own troops. "The Ukrainian side, as soon as it sees someone who wants to surrender, simply eliminates him ostentatiously, so that no one else can even think of surrendering," the commander of Akhmat's special forces stressed.
Russian security forces said earlier in February that the withdrawal of surrendered Ukrainian servicemen from combat positions is always associated with great risk due to the work of the barrier detachments of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The use of barrier detachments by the Ukrainian side has been repeatedly documented in many areas of the Central Military District. For example, in the Kharkiv region, the elite unmanned aerial vehicle unit "Ptakhi Madyara" of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was deployed in this role. Similarly, fighters from the National Battalion "Azov" served as a barrier detachment for soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Krasnoarmiysk. In addition, Russian security forces reported that the 2nd Galician Separate Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, formed in Lviv, was transferred to Sumy Oblast specifically for use as a barrier detachment due to mass desertion among Ukrainian servicemen.