2024-07-10 17:12:16
German medic and ex-soldier Caspar Grosse was looking for another adventure after leaving the army, so he joined an elite group of foreign soldiers fighting for Ukraine. But instead of adventure, he left the unit with evidence of the executions of prisoners of war. International agreements consider this a war crime.
The German Grosse chose a unit called Chosen Company, one of the most famous groups made up of foreign volunteers, led by former American officers, to be stationed in Ukraine. Administratively, it falls under the Ukrainian 59th Motorized Brigade, but in reality it is independent from it.
As a strike unit of approximately 60 people, it is often at the head of operations when it has to secure territory where Russian troops are still moving. According to the American newspaper The New York Times, even at the cost of intense fire and heavy losses, it is able to clear Russian positions.
It’s not usual for soldiers or volunteers serving in Ukraine to share information about their experiences on the battlefield, but Grosse decided to reach out to The New York Times after leaving the unit last fall. Although he himself states that the departure was amicable, he did not want to remain silent about how some members of his unit murdered soldiers who surrendered. His account is also supported by videos from the battlefield, group conversations of the unit and a diary he wrote on the spot.
One of the cases should have happened last August, when they were with the unit in the east of Ukraine. After a successful attack on the Russian trenches, one of the soldiers, who was thought to be dead, started crawling towards the foreign unit. When he heard her speak English, he shouted words like “help” and “I give up” in a mixture of Russian and English.
As a medic, Grosse therefore went to get equipment to treat the soldier, as required by the Geneva Conventions for the protection of civilians as well as persons removed from combat. They directly say that if someone clearly states that he surrenders, he must not be harmed and must be taken safely into captivity.
But that didn’t happen. A member of the squad, a Greek going by the codename Zeus, after the highest-ranking god in Greek mythology, approached the wounded Russian and shot the surrendering man in the chest. Since it didn’t kill him, another advised him to shoot the Russian in the head. Zeus did so.
Jokes about the Hague trial
It was the second event of the day that shook Gross. The first occurred during an attack on the trenches, which the medic did not see live, but was subsequently watched by the entire unit together from the video recorded on the cameras on the soldiers’ uniforms.
Even with her, the Russian soldier surrendered, in this case by raising his hands above his head. The unit understood his gesture because they talked about him on the radios. But in the end it was the same soldier from Greece, Zeus, who threw a grenade in his direction. “I think I killed the guy with the grenade in his hand,” the Greek laughed afterward, and, according to Gross, repeatedly boasted that he had managed to kill the Russian. However, the drone footage does not indicate that the Russian soldier was holding a grenade.
Gross, who wrote everything down in his diary, was shaken by the events, so he addressed the commander in front of the entire unit. “I specifically stated that because I’m a medic, I want the prisoners in my care and that no one shoots them. That they arrive in my care healthy or at least in the form they were found in. And everyone said, yeah, sure,” he described the situation to The New York Times.
He received proof that his request was unsuccessful in mid-October, when part of the soldiers were discussing what to do with the prisoners of war. After the fight, when they were left with limited ammunition and no reinforcements to help carry the wounded, the commander of the day, codenamed Andok, described the conversation that took place on the battlefield. “Someone said, ‘We have a prisoner here.’ And I said to him, why the hell isn’t he sleeping, deal with them,” he wrote in a group conversation, which is available to the American newspaper.
“If anyone accuses us of ill-treatment of prisoners of war, I ordered it,” he added, adding a photo of a Croatian war criminal who died after drinking poison at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Unclear situation
The American paper has conversations as well as videos available. He therefore approached the Greek soldier Dio and the group commander, former American soldier Ryan O’Leary. The Greek did not respond to reporters’ questions, but the group commander spoke to journalists.
He denied that his unit was committing war crimes and that it only attacked wounded Russians when they were defending themselves. He called the conversation about the liquidation of prisoners a joke and the situation with the killing of a surrendering Russian with a grenade unclear. He stated that there was another soldier next to the Russian fighter who could threaten his unit.
However, he subsequently wrote in the group chat that reporters had called him. “Some of the things the reporter talked about were only known to a few people,” he wrote, calling for the whistleblower to be found. “I would prefer to stop the investigation before it starts and simply say it was a misunderstanding,” he wrote. “We are brothers after all.
Investigating crimes
No member of the Chosen Company has yet been charged with any wrongdoing. The Ukrainian military, under which he de facto operates, however, said it would begin an investigation into the incidents. Ukrainian investigators are also investigating similar crimes against Russian soldiers among their own soldiers. “Reports of human rights abuses in the military have become a toxic issue for the Ukrainian government,” the Washington-based research organization Wilson Center wrote in February.
Foreign soldiers operating in Ukraine can also be tried by authorities in their native countries. Kiev itself often draws attention to the fact that Russian troops do not comply with the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war.
Video: “The commander told us to return to the front tomorrow, even if we are wounded,” say Russian soldiers (7/8/2024)
“The commander told us to return to the front tomorrow, even if we are wounded,” say Russian soldiers | Video: Twitter/Anton Gerashchenko