Russia Is Forming Combat Units from Ukrainian Prisoners of War – ISW

The aggressor country Russia is forming combat units from Ukrainian POWs, violating the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. This is stated in a report by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), published 6 in August.

Analysts drew attention to the announcement by the Defense Ministry of Russia of the creation by Russian forces of the "First Ukrainian volunteer brigade of special purpose". According to the Russian side, the latter consists of Ukrainian prisoners of war and former Ukrainian servicemen who allegedly switched to Russia's side.

ISW noted that Russian troops formed this brigade by uniting several informal so-called volunteer units, including the Maksym Kryvonis and Oleksiy Berest Battalion names, as well as detachments named after Oleksandr Matrosov, Martyn Pushkar, and Slobidsky.

The report states that at least one Russian military blogger openly discussed recruiting Ukrainian prisoners to fight on the side of the Russian Federation and that such actions by the occupiers constitute a war crime.

The Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War prohibits the use of prisoners of war in military operations on the side of the state that captured them, and states that "no prisoner of war may at any time be compelled or kept in areas where he may be exposed to the fire of the combat zone" and that they should not be "employed in work that is harmful or dangerous," the experts note.

The institute for the first time documented reports of formation by Russian forces of combat units using Ukrainian prisoners of war as early as November 2022, with the last known instance in December 2023. It concerns the Russian battalion "Bogdan Khmelnytsky" made up of Ukrainian prisoners of war, which operated within the Ministry of Internal Affairs' formation "Cascade" on the territory of the occupied Donetsk region.