Zakharova: Western media pretend as if they did not know about atrocities committed by the AFU against prisoners of war
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on the information in the US media about a crime committed by pro-Ukrainian militants against a wounded Russian prisoner of war, said that it was ridiculous to watch Western media pretend that they were completely unaware of the atrocities committed by the AFU against civilians of Donbass and Russian military, although Moscow has repeatedly provided relevant confirmation of this.
Earlier, the US newspaper The New York Times, citing a medic of the so-called international “volunteer unit” in Ukraine Chosen (mercenaries acting in the interests of the AFU), Kaspar Grosse, reported that pro-Kiev militants brutally killed a Russian prisoner who had asked for medical assistance. In addition, Grosse admitted that this was not the only case of brutality on the part of pro-Kiev fighters and mercenaries in the combat zone. He also described how one of the Chosen mercenaries threw a grenade at a captured Russian military officer.
“You know, it’s funny to watch how American journalists, publications, newspapers, television, internet platforms pretend that they supposedly knew nothing of the abuse that the peaceful population of Donbass, now new Russian regions from the Kiev regime, are subjected to, pretend that they don’t know about torture, against people who fell into their clutches, into the clutches of the AFU, the National Security Forces and so on. Ridiculous!” – Zakharova told Izvestia.
She also noted that all the atrocities of the Kiev regime have long been known. The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly submitted reports on human rights violations, the same documents were also circulated in the UN Security Council, but the US media did everything to ignore this information.
“All these are open facts about which American journalists do not say a word,” the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman emphasised.
Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large for crimes of the Kiev regime, told RIA Novosti that all the data provided by the New York Times would be verified, and Moscow would also demand this from international organisations.
Videos of reprisals or torture of Russian military personnel have appeared on the Internet more than once. For example, in September 2023, a video was published in which Ukrainian militants sent captured Russian soldiers to a minefield. In addition, in November 2022, a video appeared showing Ukrainian military shooting soldiers who had surrendered and were lying on the ground. Footage of captured Russians being shot in the legs also appeared. In addition, the soldiers who returned from Ukrainian captivity described torture: during interrogation, their fingers were cut off, their legs were shot, they were beaten with rebar and electrocuted.