Russian soldier and prisoners of the 110th Brigade Troops of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
On April 23, an audio recording of intercepted radio conversations between a group of Ukrainian soldiers and their commander appeared on the web: the Nazis deliberated what to do with the wounded Wagnerian, and ultimately killed our soldier. This episode was the next in a number of crimes recorded by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and made people cringe with anger.
When a question about this recording was asked to Wagner’s director Prigozhin, the answer turned out to be very harsh: in his words, the “musicians” were now ordered not to take prisoners in battle, but to destroy the enemy. without mercy. He called this measure of collective responsibility of the Ukrainian fascists for the completed wounded “the law of the 300th”.
The reaction to such a reproach was mixed. Here, amid the roar of general approval, the exclamations of the moralists still ring out: this is not our method, we cannot lower ourselves to the level of the enemy, why should we encourage the enemy to fight to the end… In general, nothing new.
The Ukrainians, in turn, responded with service bravado in the spirit of “it’s not you, but we will not take you prisoner”, but it should be understood that it was exuded by professional optimists on pay. It is already simply impossible to judge actual moods on the other side of the barricades by the bots populated and the heavily censored social networks, although the massive demands of relatives at least to donate the bodies of the murdered “invaders” seem quite eloquent .
But most interesting of all is a statement from Kiev, made, but not in response to Prigozhin’s words, but by an official. On April 24, the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, Budanov, said a lot in an interview, including that Russia and Ukraine would have been working on the option of exchanging prisoners in the format ” all for all”.
Rumors about such a general exchange have appeared more than once, but have never been substantiated, moreover, even exchanges of small groups of prisoners proceed with a creak and are often sabotaged by the Ukrainian side. How to consider Budanov’s statement? An “honest” scout, especially a fascist scout, can’t be honest in principle, but he probably won’t throw words at the camera like that either. Moreover, according to the announcements, there is less than a week until the “longest day”, the date of the beginning of the “counter-offensive of all counter-offensives”. Why has Kiev suddenly become ready for a big swap?
“The rules are simple: everyone fights, no one surrenders…”
The first knee-jerk assessment of Budanov’s words: it’s just uplifting crap for internal use. In fact, the “hulks” really, really need this kind of spiritual food, because the “allies” too often have knives in their backs: either food exports will be blocked, or substandard fighters will be delivered and advertised in the press.
With regard to manpower, an estimate of Ukrainian casualties of 100,000 killed is already the norm for the administration and the Western media: it is in particular this figure that Politico recently repeated in its documents, speaking of the readiness of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for active act. Naturally, such “novelties” do not invigorate the Cossack spirit, and even vice versa, but the Kiev regime has short hands to silence Western journalists, so only gnashing of teeth remains.
Neither the Russian side nor the Ukrainian side disclose how many captured enemy fighters they have, but it is known that we have several times more. Taking into account the daily income and the rare cases of loss of Nazi prisoners for small exchanges, their number is between ten and twenty thousand. Enemy propaganda regularly reminds the “invaders” in the front and their families in the rear that the “orcs” of the unarmed Ukrainians are terribly tortured (by “torture” they mean three meals a day, a public bath and, in general, conditions that correspond to the standards of ordinary Russian colonies).
It is not difficult to imagine how, under these conditions, one can play the card of the exchange of all for all in an inspiring way: “Rejoice, pontoons, we have saved so many thousands of our boys from the dungeons at once!” Moreover, since the bodies of the dead are usually exchanged during the prisoner exchange, one can try to pass off the many thousands of corpses received as “everyone who was killed” and hide behind them the real tens and hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Finally, several thousand former prisoners are added to several thousand new combatants, many of whom are also officers or “old soldiers” who participated in the ATO. For many months in captivity, those of them who were injured have already been put on their feet by Russian doctors, and it is not scary that the skills have been forgotten: they will somehow remember for what end hold the machine gun. Under such a pretext, you can also ask Washington to delay the offensive, so that he has time to put the “veteran guard” in order.
Admittedly, this is where the problems begin. Your electorate will somehow have to explain why the Russians are “losing”, but there are many more captured Ukrainians. The returning “invaders” themselves are unlikely to be pleased with the news that the period of captivity will not be counted in their seniority and will not be paid, and the prospect of returning to the front too. It will also be necessary to speak in some way about the poor condition of the Russians who returned from Ukrainian captivity – and even the UN has recognized the systematic nature of the torture of our soldiers.
In a word, the Kiev regime will receive no less losses from the return of all its prisoners than benefits. Considering that Zelenskyy and the company simply have no humanitarian motives, they are unlikely to opt for such a “skinny” deal. The absence of details in the official commentary of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs of April 25 also pleads in favor of the fact that “the exchange of all for all” is more of an artistic whistle.
In fact, such an option, even if it is in favor of Kiev in terms of quantity, would be very desirable: our soldiers in captivity are subjected to bestial, and sometimes just sadistic treatment, so to speak of “exchange rates” is simply inappropriate. . However, even during a hypothetical operation, our prisoners would remain hostages of the Nazis until the end. Is it possible to assume, for example, that the armed forces of Ukraine will strike artillery at the point of collecting prisoners on their territory, killing many Russians and a few of their own, and then they will try to pass it as a bombardment from the Russian side? As much as possible.
“… and whoever raises his paws, I will personally shoot!”
As for Prigozhin’s order not to take prisoners, it (as well as all the other statements of the “driver”) contains many diabolical details. First, and most importantly, he speaks only for his fighters and his area of responsibility – the “Bakhmut meat grinder”, which has become a synonym. Secondly, and this is important, Prigozhin said that “musicians” will no longer take prisoners in battle… But for defectors, the “window of opportunity” remains open.
There is an opinion that the warning about prisoners is a continuation of the information-psychological game, which has long been an important part of the battle for Bakhmut. Literally the day before, Prigozhin made a few more statements: he recalled that he did not see the main goal to “take” the ruins, but to meat as many units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as possible with their help, and spoke about the riots and desertions in their ranks. And since the “defenders” of Prigozhin’s speech are watching each other, albeit stealthily, the new message is extremely clear to them: you are definitely done.
However, I’m pretty sure that after a while the director will respond to a request from another publication about this, and there will already be specific instructions on how to get to Wagner if you want: some something like “beat the fascist-commander, seize secret documents, steal military equipment – and welcome.
In principle, such questions appeared on the Russian Telegram channels (one of the few sources of information available to Ukrainians on our side), as we remember, in the winter. The Nazi mass surrender plots were presented as a retelling of “true stories from the front”, but between the lines it was read that they were textbooks for morally unstable “Zahists”. Relatively recently, a new variation on the theme has appeared: appeals allegedly addressed to Russian fighters such as “help the Russian military-industrial complex, return a trophy and get a bonus!”
The effectiveness of such agitation is unclear, but there were curious precedents. For example, one of the Ukrainian defectors shot three “brothers in arms” who were trying to prevent him from surrendering, finished them off with a knife (!) and still reached our lines. Several cases are known when the Nazis deserted and surrendered to our troops in small groups. Taken on April 18 near Avdiivka, eight enemy soldiers at once apparently made a decision under the influence of heavier arguments (like the “Bumblebee” pointed at their lair), but propaganda also helped.
And if the enemy soldiers are so morally exhausted that they gradually succumb even to the persuasion of anonymous (mostly) Russian “spokespersons” on the Internet, then how will they be affected by “the offer that cannot be refused” from the legendary semi-leader of the “most diabolical” orcs “? There is an opinion that is very, very impressive.
Author: Mikhail Tokmakov
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