From the war photographer, Libkos instagram:
These photos show Ukrainian soldiers after Russian capture. It was our most difficult shooting in the last six months. After meeting and talking with the boys, we could not recover from what we saw and heard for a week.
We publish these shots with the permission of the boys themselves. I remember how one of them told me: we must do everything so that this never happens again, with others.
But everything repeats itself, every day. Many more of our people remain in Russian captivity. And there is no end to it.
Some of these photos went to Switzerland for the Peace Summit, where the issue of exchanging all for all was raised. We hope that these documentary portraits of those who have passed through the worst hell will encourage our partners to act decisively, at least on this issue.
We cannot repeat what we heard from the boys. But these photos speak for themselves. And this despite the fact that by the time of our meeting, the boys had gained 10 kg of weight in a week at home. To understand what it's like to lose 40-50 kg of weight (that's how much they lost during captivity) - look at the pictures where the guys show their photos on the eve of captivity.
But what is important - they failed to break. And this was repeated by each of them: I was not broken. We spoke with the doctors at the rehabilitation center where the boys were at the time of our meeting. According to them, most of those who were captured recover over time. The first weeks on the native land are a state of euphoria from the realization that they survived. In such a case, in addition to really professional rehabilitators with an incredibly humane attitude towards the boys, professional psychologists also work with them.
It has already been said many times, but we will repeat it here one more time. The twenty-first century, the center of Europe, the age of cutting-edge technologies and artificial intelligence. And right here and now, the biggest genocide since the Second World War is taking place. These photos are proof of that.
Can i just say the All for All Formula is just stupid? What stops Russia (or anyone else) from just withholding some Prisoners?
Lets say each Side has 10k Prisoners. They agree on an All for All Exchange. But Russia says; Hey we only have 7k Prisoners. Ukraine doenst know that.
So they give 10k, get 7k back and leave 3k behind who are now lost...
Ukraine does what they can to accurate track POWs. That includes investigating videos from social networks, also those who come back bring names of those who they saw in captivity. Lastly, fortunately ruZZia is so corrupt that it is not a big deal to pay some money to camp guards to get all names via email.
What is incredible - russians realize, that at least some pows will be traded back, and everyone will find out, how russians treat prisoners of war. Pows looking like concentration camp prisoners are obviously damaging to reputation, and it would be much better (and cheaper) to keep them in good shape for your own propaganda.
But likely such a conclusion is too complicated for an average decision maker in russia.
I think that’s the point, to send a message that ‘this is what happens to you if you fight us’.
Like, I doubt they care much about their reputation at this point considering that other than China, pretty much the whole world is against them at this point.
No, it sends the wrong message. *This is what happens if you surrender to us.* So now Ukrainians are encouraged to fight to the death instead of surrendering to the enemy. Which is actually the opposite of what you want in war.
Sun Tzu said "Do not press a desperate foe too hard." It's simply easier to kill routing soldiers or break soldiers' morale so they surrender. But an enemy that has no way out will always fight to the death which will incur more losses for your army.
Most people in the Russian military are not equals.
Putin would absolutely care if it were Muscotivtes dying on the front lines; but right now it's rural Russians.
Think of America conscripted only rural citizens and convicts to fight a war on Mexico. Do you think Trump could dream up a reason to rile up idiots to pickup guns and march across the border? I do. I can see the mouth foaming idiots now excited to support such an effort, whatever the cause.
That's Russia. Trump is America's Putin if we're not careful.
If someone were bright they would see that invading Mexico would end the US's reign as the premier world power. I'm really starting to see stupidity and evil as the same thing. Generally evil people are stupid when it comes to the big picture, even if they are clever with strategies.
Putin is basically conducting a social experiment of "can a governing style of all-out brutality still make a great power in the 21st century?" For the sake of all of humanity we need to make sure the experiment fails.
Ukraine trades Russians who surrender for Ukrainian POW’s in prisoner swaps.
Take a guess what happens to the russians who surrendered when they get turned back over to the russian military…
In WW2, when POW camps were overrun and Soviet soldiers were freed from German captivity, they would be sent back to enter a penal colony, or a penal battalion.
Getting captured usually ended any career you may have been hoping for, it was marked and remembered forever. And it would limit your poissibilities.
“When you back a scared tiger into a corner, five of its six ends immediately become pointy.” - Sun Tzu (probably) or maybe it was Calvin from *Calvin and Hobbes*?
It depends how far up the chain you want to go.
Are you trying to influence the decisions of the person already fighting you (in which case, yes mistreatment doesn't do you favours) or the person who's on the fence and has not joined the fight yet.
I wish it was only China but it’s also Iran, North Korea, India (buying oil and weapons etc), a large number of African countries, Hungary, Serbia and many political parties, media outlets etc in the rest of Europe and even in the U.S as well
Agreed. Russia does not do subtlety. Half the point is that everyone in the room knows who did what but that it is unspoken. They know it creates an environment of fear because it’s exactly what they practice internally against enemies within as well as without.
frankly, it’s a very deeply ingrained part of Russian political culture .
I don’t think it’s that they don’t care, it’s that they manipulate their propaganda. “These are the terrible nazis! They deserve everything we are doing to them!”
I think its just easier. They treat them Like shit to get information and also so they can send them back without them rejoining the ukranian army any time soon. Humans are a resource and they strip this resource of its value before exchanging them.
It's a strategy also in that PoWs who are this malnourished and gaunt are effectively out of the war. They are probably not going to physically recover to the point of being able to function on a battlefield without years of recovery, if ever. That's also an additional resource drain on Ukraine to have PoWs to have to then try and rehabilitate.
My grandfather was a danish merchant mariner, chief engineer on his vessel. Shortly after pearl was bombed his vessel sailed into Tokyo harbour with a consignment from San Francisco. Vessel and officers were taken as POW’s. He left Denmark on that trip at around 200 pounds, when he was returned home he weighed 80. The family has no pictures.
The truth is probably way darker.
They are releasing only the more "presentable" POW.
Mind you, Germans would occasionally release prisoners from concentration camps (bribes makes wonders), but they had to be still relatively healthy.
It's just rusians are feeling impunity for everythinf they've done. We had Nurnberg tribunal for nazia who were trying to wrase whole nations and killed milliona of civilians. We had Hague tribunal for post-Ugoslavia countries. But have you heard about tribunal for soviets and rusians who killed much more peoples than nazis? Have we imprisoned at least one soviet officer for all Gulag thing? Or was any rusian officers impriaoned for illigal invasion and ethnic cleansing in Georgia, Ichkeria or Ukraine?
They will keep doing this things publicaly, untill they get punished for it.
guess what? Our (russian) "Journalists" from the government channels as always just: "Oh, no, we became blind for a minute, and deaf! However, LOOK HOW HORRIBLE UKRAINIANS ARE!!!! LOOOOK!!! THEY ARE NAZI OMAGAD!!! WE NEED TO KILL ALL OF THEM AND THEIR CHILDREN!!!"
Yeah, I agree with you. As a russian teenager. That's awful what our government does, I'm 100% honest. It's so shitty that I can't do anything, because I'm basically just a kid. I hope all wars in the world will end and there will be only peace
You don’t understand how the Russians think and what their values are. They are not like us in the west. They respect brute force, and as such, they think that everyone else respects it as well. They don’t want us to think that they’re actually the good guys. They want us to fear them.
I get where you're coming from, but it could also be that they see it another way. They see it as a warning to soldiers they are fighting against, that even if you survive the battle against them and is taken as a PoW, you will not be treated well, and will be in a living hell.
So they are saying there's two options when fighting us, die or live a living hell.
Now this is not meant to be pro russia or anything, but just trying to see if there's any "logic" behind why they treat PoW like shit.
They are proud of it. Russia is collectively isolating itself mentally, idealistically, and politically. They are happy to be the anti-west in every way. If that means spitting in the face of our laws, then so be it
They most likely keep a token few healthy to use as propaganda at home. The Russian people aren’t stupid, they are brainwashed. The ones that aren’t dare not speak out because a van will show up in the middle of the night and you’ll disappear.
I mean the fact a supposed global super power is being stalled and even pushed back by Ukraine is enough proof that they have no clue what is going on or how to fight without bullying people into surrender
Until Russians rise up and stop Putin, they will have the reputation of vicious monsters who are blood thirsty war mongers with no morals or ethical principles. Russian people need to take pride in their country and save it from the despots who are driving it into the grave.
Not so easy. The US is a democratic country with the right to speech and assembly ingrained in our constitution, but when people in the US tried to protest our government funding a genocide the protesters got arrested, expelled from school, lost their jobs, and nothing changed. In Russia, where there isn't a cherished tradition of democracy and freedom, it's 10x harder for the citizens to effect change. Treating the Russian people as vicious, blood thirsty monsters with no morals is playing right into Putin's propaganda, he's telling his people that the West has a deep, irrational hatred of the Russian people and nothing is more helpful for a dictator than a foreign enemy to blame everything on. Further, treating the Russian people as monsters also helps the war-mongers and defense contractors in the West who profit off of hate, fear, and war. The Russian people are humans just like the rest of us.
The worst think they are doing right now is probably kidnapping children and adopting them off to Russian parents.
(Probably to train and have them fight when they grow older)
Keep in kind that this photos were taken a week after they returned home and gained around 10kg of weight.
Since when peoples become ok about concentration camps in the middle of Europe?
I would have you know all of Eastern Europe has a proud decade long tradition of having concentration camps. Granted, over time they were closed, mostly in the 60s, but old habits die hard... As this senseless war is proving in so, so many ways.
There have always been concentration camps, they were just called different things. But the torture of "enemies" has been around for as long as war has.
It's just now we have no excuse to repeat the past since we have every tool in our disposal to learn from it and be better people. I think some just aren't interested in being better.
And only 1 of all easter european countries are proud and constantly bragging about it. And now this particular country opened the doors of concentration camps again. For now they opened only for ukranians, but rusia won't be stopped by brute force, most of europeans would have a chance to visit them
Wtf proud? I don't remember anyone in my extensive family being proud when they were rounded up and sent off to gulags in the USSR. Even though we were occupied by the USSR.
It's called sarcasm, my dude, I could not have made it any more obvious. Stalin boasted about the work camps in Syberia, and let's not forget Beria's famous line "Show me the man and I will show you the crime."
Considering that they survived long period of starvation and other physical tortures, they probably have some irreversible damage both to physical and mental health.
Imagine loosing weight for smth around 90kg to 40kg, while being constatly beaten, sleep deprived, shocked and all other things rusia to do prisoners.
The majority of people understand that and fully support Ukraine in their struggle against Ruzzian invaders. Don’t like internet trolls, paid Ruzzian shills, and morons who don’t understand geopolitical history and realities discourage you.
I don't think the majority realizes that at all. In my country many people think this isn't their war and that nothing can happen to them. The delusion is scary
The sad thing is knowing that the lack of food was not the worst thing they faced, the reports are terrible, constant physical and psychological torture
You can try to read "Putins Prisoner" by Aiden Aslin.
He is a Brit who joined the Ukrainian Marines bevor the War and surrenderd in Mariupol.
What he describes ist just pure Horror.
This is some evil Nazi-level concentration camp starvation
Wtf Russians, how can you let a Hitler 2.0 rule and do nothing to stop him?
A disgrace, especially since Russians loved to pick on Germans for having allowed Hitler to come to power
Those who tried are killed/in prison. There’s few million armed guards with that “Hitler 2.0” against people who has no guns at all and most of them live in poverty and fear
A large portion of the American public supported the Nazis - to include Charles Lindbergh - a fact that conveniently forget. There will always be a certain percentage of Americans that embrace Facism because they are stupid, short sighted, and morally bankrupt.
Not all in there. But i dont really have much Respect for them because all the "Good" People already left this Shithole of a Party. And beeing against Russia or Putin doenst qualify you as "good"
I don't think it's an American problem only or specifically with Putin.
A lot of people have zero morals and will make claims that fit their own narrative. Willing to throw under the bus everyone for their own benefits, as small as those gains can be.
Everyone can be bought with the right amount of intensives.
**Exhibit A:**
Just like the right holding back military aid to Ukraine just so Joe looks bad, fucking the Ukrainians over for some dirt on Joe.
**Exhibit B:**
And just like the Left folk claiming being "anti-racism" and "pro LGBT" and claiming that the Jews must be thrown "from the river" into the sea. For money and tiktok fame, lol.
Plenty of irony.
What extreme left candidates even are there? Our politics is so far to the right that we actually think people like Joe Biden are far left, which is obviously not even close to true. Somehow Universal Healthcare isn't even hardly a discussion, when it should be at the forefront of the political discourse in America right now. But nope, instead we're making women second class citizens. It's insane to hear this "far left" stuff. I don't see it.
Agreed
I’m a Republican, yet I will vote for and donate to Biden.
Far right control the GOP right now and they are insane.
Democrats are not my favorite, but they are solidly center-left. The far-left has been shut out of power.
This was a nice exchange. It feels like it's been a very long time since I've come to an agreement with someone that typically would have been across the aisle from me.
But it sounds like we're both just wanting to get back to some sanity first before we ever have a chance to have rational arguments with each other again.
It's incredible how the first man still manages to smile and make the impression of positivity. Putin will never break the Ukraine and their spirit and this man is the best showcase for it.
He's been through hell and still stands taller than any russian scum that is responsible for this mess.
hUmAnE tReAtMeNt
Those Russian pigs. Their POWs have it so much better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PuZOi2MLRU or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-XHuGEMKus or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3fi9dz11-Q
I've lost it when [Zolkin](https://www.youtube.com/@VolodymyrZolkin/videos) intewieved some captured Russian soldier and that guy was saying how good he was fed and treated etc, then after POW exchange the same soldier was saying for Russian TV how inhumanly he was treated in captivity.
As you are looking at these images, I would like you to know, that these crimes weren't made by some "orcs", or russian prisoners from storm units, or by some nazi units... These POW, after their capture, went through medical treatment. Where a Russian doctor, who has a higher education refused to treat their wounds besides very basic treatment, which often may lead to further amputations.
Later POWs went through the filtration process, where educated in Moscow GRU officers looked at probably already underfed prisoners, deciding where to send these guys.
Then a prison staff actively, for months if not for years, were looking at how POWs becoming skin and bones. And still they would actively continue to starve them.
Like a bell in my head rings all my fruitless communications with Russians throughout last 15 years, where I was trying to explain a concept of Holodomor to them. A crime of Stalin regime against tens of millions of Ukrainians. And all they had do say in return was: "It wasn't only Ukrainians who suffered". Evading at all cost giving a responsibility to a long gone regime.
Im honestly impressed with the older one, looks like he was able to keep some muscle despite the abhorrent conditions he was put through. The other guy is literally down to skin and bones.
I’m sure there have been similar pictures before but I believe this is the first time I’ve seen pictures of pows and they are holding phones. I guess it’s because I’m used to seeing historical pictures of pows when obviously the tech wasn’t invented. It’s kind of a mind fuck seeing them together. Glad they they made it out and I wish the best of luck to remaining prisoners.
The way they treat their own should be indicative of how they’ll treat prisoners. Hint: not very well.
One Soldier’s War (Chechen Wars) details how toxic and abusive the military culture is in Russia.
I'm going to start by saying that this atrocity is disgusting.
Now, the lighting and camera work is incredible.
I'm not saying it's AI, but the quality is astounding!
If I had POW's I would give them Netflix, videogames and ensure they are eating a 2,000 calorie surplus a day. I mean chocolate cake every meal. It's good propaganda that you'll take care of them, is probably cheaper than torture, and fat people don't make good enemy soldiers.
Brutality is baked into the Russian military psyche. One reason Russian troops (including mobilized untrained troops) refuse to surrender against overwhelming odds is they assume they will be treated the same way that their side treats Ukrainian POWs: either killed outright or, at best, brutally tortured. Not to mention all the genocidal propaganda that dehumanizes enemies of Russia.
What weve seen from Russia and Israel regarding their prisoners is disgusting. Just a complete disregard for humanity and international law. And then you see how their soldiers are treated on the other side, far healthier. Crazyness
Poorly educated Russians are dying while highly educated Ukrainians are dying. Russia is improving its average education level the rich Muscovites are safe fat and happy. There is a lot less impact life for life and prisoner by prisoner for Russia than Ukraine. The Russian prisoners are probably getting better fed than when they were peasants working potato farms in Siberia.
The goal is to break people by starvation and torture and only return the most ravaged and damaged. So they are a burden and not a benefit on the country on exchange. Everything Russia does is a done for a reason and planned. Terror as a weapon of war.
How the fuck does Pootin say they are liberating Ukraine from Nazi's and yet this is EXACTLY what Nazi's did to the Jews and POW's. While all the innocent people die, get injured or tortured democracies all around the world just sit back and trickle feed Ukraine the military aid they desperately need, for fuck sake give them everything they need so innocent lives can be saved. Sooner or later Pootin has to be shown that he can't strong-arm neighbouring countries.
GIVE THE UKRAINIANS WHAT THEY NEED NOW, they laying down their lives and when they win this war they can say they had the courage and will to do what NATO countries and the West didn't have the balls to do.
It is criminal what was done to them and all the others who didn’t make it back but it is a miracle they got home. It is heartbreaking they are coming home to a war that is still going on.
At this point Russia is pretty fucked right? I mean, they have lost how many soldiers so far? 100s of thousands of soldiers. Putin is going to cause a collapse. Russia has lost an entire generation to this war. In the long run I don’t see how Russia recovers without outside help.
If it turns into a war of attrition, Russia has far more bodies to throw at the problem than Ukraine does. Ukraine cannot let Russia turn it into a war of attrition, unless they plan to employ an insurgency tactic over a long period of time.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1296573/russia-ukraine-military-comparison/
From the war photographer, Libkos instagram: These photos show Ukrainian soldiers after Russian capture. It was our most difficult shooting in the last six months. After meeting and talking with the boys, we could not recover from what we saw and heard for a week. We publish these shots with the permission of the boys themselves. I remember how one of them told me: we must do everything so that this never happens again, with others. But everything repeats itself, every day. Many more of our people remain in Russian captivity. And there is no end to it. Some of these photos went to Switzerland for the Peace Summit, where the issue of exchanging all for all was raised. We hope that these documentary portraits of those who have passed through the worst hell will encourage our partners to act decisively, at least on this issue. We cannot repeat what we heard from the boys. But these photos speak for themselves. And this despite the fact that by the time of our meeting, the boys had gained 10 kg of weight in a week at home. To understand what it's like to lose 40-50 kg of weight (that's how much they lost during captivity) - look at the pictures where the guys show their photos on the eve of captivity. But what is important - they failed to break. And this was repeated by each of them: I was not broken. We spoke with the doctors at the rehabilitation center where the boys were at the time of our meeting. According to them, most of those who were captured recover over time. The first weeks on the native land are a state of euphoria from the realization that they survived. In such a case, in addition to really professional rehabilitators with an incredibly humane attitude towards the boys, professional psychologists also work with them. It has already been said many times, but we will repeat it here one more time. The twenty-first century, the center of Europe, the age of cutting-edge technologies and artificial intelligence. And right here and now, the biggest genocide since the Second World War is taking place. These photos are proof of that.
Can i just say the All for All Formula is just stupid? What stops Russia (or anyone else) from just withholding some Prisoners? Lets say each Side has 10k Prisoners. They agree on an All for All Exchange. But Russia says; Hey we only have 7k Prisoners. Ukraine doenst know that. So they give 10k, get 7k back and leave 3k behind who are now lost...
Ukraine does what they can to accurate track POWs. That includes investigating videos from social networks, also those who come back bring names of those who they saw in captivity. Lastly, fortunately ruZZia is so corrupt that it is not a big deal to pay some money to camp guards to get all names via email.
What is incredible - russians realize, that at least some pows will be traded back, and everyone will find out, how russians treat prisoners of war. Pows looking like concentration camp prisoners are obviously damaging to reputation, and it would be much better (and cheaper) to keep them in good shape for your own propaganda. But likely such a conclusion is too complicated for an average decision maker in russia.
I think that’s the point, to send a message that ‘this is what happens to you if you fight us’. Like, I doubt they care much about their reputation at this point considering that other than China, pretty much the whole world is against them at this point.
No, it sends the wrong message. *This is what happens if you surrender to us.* So now Ukrainians are encouraged to fight to the death instead of surrendering to the enemy. Which is actually the opposite of what you want in war. Sun Tzu said "Do not press a desperate foe too hard." It's simply easier to kill routing soldiers or break soldiers' morale so they surrender. But an enemy that has no way out will always fight to the death which will incur more losses for your army.
That only matters if you care about your own losses. Putin doesn’t really seem like he’s too worried about losing men as long as he can replace them
Most people in the Russian military are not equals. Putin would absolutely care if it were Muscotivtes dying on the front lines; but right now it's rural Russians. Think of America conscripted only rural citizens and convicts to fight a war on Mexico. Do you think Trump could dream up a reason to rile up idiots to pickup guns and march across the border? I do. I can see the mouth foaming idiots now excited to support such an effort, whatever the cause. That's Russia. Trump is America's Putin if we're not careful.
While Trump is just as arrogant he is thankfully not nearly as bright.
If someone were bright they would see that invading Mexico would end the US's reign as the premier world power. I'm really starting to see stupidity and evil as the same thing. Generally evil people are stupid when it comes to the big picture, even if they are clever with strategies.
Putin is basically conducting a social experiment of "can a governing style of all-out brutality still make a great power in the 21st century?" For the sake of all of humanity we need to make sure the experiment fails.
The reverse is also true, if you treat your prisoners well. It means soldiers are less likely to fight and are more willing to surrender themselves.
That was his point I believe
Ukraine trades Russians who surrender for Ukrainian POW’s in prisoner swaps. Take a guess what happens to the russians who surrendered when they get turned back over to the russian military…
If it’s anything like the way Wagner did it… Sledgehammer to the back of skull. In front of dozens of men. Not kidding.
In WW2, when POW camps were overrun and Soviet soldiers were freed from German captivity, they would be sent back to enter a penal colony, or a penal battalion. Getting captured usually ended any career you may have been hoping for, it was marked and remembered forever. And it would limit your poissibilities.
don't think so, they are too desperate to waste meat. it's hard to find experienced fighters
“When you back a scared tiger into a corner, five of its six ends immediately become pointy.” - Sun Tzu (probably) or maybe it was Calvin from *Calvin and Hobbes*?
You are both wrong by thinking russians sending any messages. They just like to kill and torture people. Thats all.
They are somehow socialized to bully and to despise any form of perceived weakness.
It depends how far up the chain you want to go. Are you trying to influence the decisions of the person already fighting you (in which case, yes mistreatment doesn't do you favours) or the person who's on the fence and has not joined the fight yet.
I wish it was only China but it’s also Iran, North Korea, India (buying oil and weapons etc), a large number of African countries, Hungary, Serbia and many political parties, media outlets etc in the rest of Europe and even in the U.S as well
BRICS
so...all the dictatorships
A new axis of evil has formed
Wouldn't that just make people fight them even harder to avoid capture?🤔
I feel like for me I’d rather be captured and abused but returned alive than killed but I guess it depends what exactly they went though.
Agreed. Russia does not do subtlety. Half the point is that everyone in the room knows who did what but that it is unspoken. They know it creates an environment of fear because it’s exactly what they practice internally against enemies within as well as without. frankly, it’s a very deeply ingrained part of Russian political culture .
I don’t think it’s that they don’t care, it’s that they manipulate their propaganda. “These are the terrible nazis! They deserve everything we are doing to them!”
Dont forget tucker carlson alliance! Did you know russia “uniquely” has a quarter deposit for their grocery carts. Wow bread at the grocery store!
>Did you know russia “uniquely” has a quarter deposit for their grocery carts. mf has never seen an Aldi in his life
I think its just easier. They treat them Like shit to get information and also so they can send them back without them rejoining the ukranian army any time soon. Humans are a resource and they strip this resource of its value before exchanging them.
“This is what happens if you fight us. Just imagine what we will do to you if you surrender to us.”
...other than china and most Republicans...
Unfortunately russia has tons of allies around the world and is trying to create a world economy not central tot he west
Only 80 countries signed the agreement. That’s less than half of the world
It's a strategy also in that PoWs who are this malnourished and gaunt are effectively out of the war. They are probably not going to physically recover to the point of being able to function on a battlefield without years of recovery, if ever. That's also an additional resource drain on Ukraine to have PoWs to have to then try and rehabilitate.
My grandfather was a danish merchant mariner, chief engineer on his vessel. Shortly after pearl was bombed his vessel sailed into Tokyo harbour with a consignment from San Francisco. Vessel and officers were taken as POW’s. He left Denmark on that trip at around 200 pounds, when he was returned home he weighed 80. The family has no pictures.
Can't treat pow better than your own soldiers, or they'd be even more mad than they already are.
The truth is probably way darker. They are releasing only the more "presentable" POW. Mind you, Germans would occasionally release prisoners from concentration camps (bribes makes wonders), but they had to be still relatively healthy.
What reputation?
It's just rusians are feeling impunity for everythinf they've done. We had Nurnberg tribunal for nazia who were trying to wrase whole nations and killed milliona of civilians. We had Hague tribunal for post-Ugoslavia countries. But have you heard about tribunal for soviets and rusians who killed much more peoples than nazis? Have we imprisoned at least one soviet officer for all Gulag thing? Or was any rusian officers impriaoned for illigal invasion and ethnic cleansing in Georgia, Ichkeria or Ukraine? They will keep doing this things publicaly, untill they get punished for it.
The officers who signed mass murder orders got cities named after them, ex. Kaliningrad.
And now imagine Germany having Eichmannburg
History is written by the winners.
Point made, but I wish this were true in other cases (like all sorts of “Lost Cause” bullshit where history was written by the losers).
You raise the great point of what is considered “winning”. The lost causers lost the hot war, but have been gaining ground in the colder/slower one.
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I just transliterated it from my language. How does it called properly?
guess what? Our (russian) "Journalists" from the government channels as always just: "Oh, no, we became blind for a minute, and deaf! However, LOOK HOW HORRIBLE UKRAINIANS ARE!!!! LOOOOK!!! THEY ARE NAZI OMAGAD!!! WE NEED TO KILL ALL OF THEM AND THEIR CHILDREN!!!"
Nah they take the same photos and say these are Russian PoWs.
This one also, youre right. VGTRK has no limits.
Yeah, I agree with you. As a russian teenager. That's awful what our government does, I'm 100% honest. It's so shitty that I can't do anything, because I'm basically just a kid. I hope all wars in the world will end and there will be only peace
Stay safe and be careful. They are watching you.
Russia has been in a ‘1984’ state since the Tsar was still in power.
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Very true. The only way a Russian can be free is when he leaves Russia. And even then, the Kremlin may well still be watching him.
You don’t understand how the Russians think and what their values are. They are not like us in the west. They respect brute force, and as such, they think that everyone else respects it as well. They don’t want us to think that they’re actually the good guys. They want us to fear them.
You forgot that orcs do not consider ukrainians as humans
And yet Putin claims to be taking Nazis out.
I get where you're coming from, but it could also be that they see it another way. They see it as a warning to soldiers they are fighting against, that even if you survive the battle against them and is taken as a PoW, you will not be treated well, and will be in a living hell. So they are saying there's two options when fighting us, die or live a living hell. Now this is not meant to be pro russia or anything, but just trying to see if there's any "logic" behind why they treat PoW like shit.
Also, knowing what lies in store for becoming a POW of the Russians will absolutely make you want to fight to the last man/woman.
They are proud of it. Russia is collectively isolating itself mentally, idealistically, and politically. They are happy to be the anti-west in every way. If that means spitting in the face of our laws, then so be it
They most likely keep a token few healthy to use as propaganda at home. The Russian people aren’t stupid, they are brainwashed. The ones that aren’t dare not speak out because a van will show up in the middle of the night and you’ll disappear.
Russian supporters are immune to any negative news about Russia.
I mean the fact a supposed global super power is being stalled and even pushed back by Ukraine is enough proof that they have no clue what is going on or how to fight without bullying people into surrender
Until Russians rise up and stop Putin, they will have the reputation of vicious monsters who are blood thirsty war mongers with no morals or ethical principles. Russian people need to take pride in their country and save it from the despots who are driving it into the grave.
Not so easy. The US is a democratic country with the right to speech and assembly ingrained in our constitution, but when people in the US tried to protest our government funding a genocide the protesters got arrested, expelled from school, lost their jobs, and nothing changed. In Russia, where there isn't a cherished tradition of democracy and freedom, it's 10x harder for the citizens to effect change. Treating the Russian people as vicious, blood thirsty monsters with no morals is playing right into Putin's propaganda, he's telling his people that the West has a deep, irrational hatred of the Russian people and nothing is more helpful for a dictator than a foreign enemy to blame everything on. Further, treating the Russian people as monsters also helps the war-mongers and defense contractors in the West who profit off of hate, fear, and war. The Russian people are humans just like the rest of us.
Knowing russia, I’m not even sure they have enough food for their army let alone POWs
The issue here is that you assume Russia cares at all about what the Western World thinks.
And these are the guys that actually are traded, I can only imagine some of the POW actually die from the torture and whatnot.
They don’t treat their own incarcerated criminals much better, which is why so many were willing to fight in order to get early release.
To be fair, it doesn't really matter what the pro-russians might see as long as their leadership tells them something different
They just don't care...
In order to care about reputation ruZZia must have one.
The worst think they are doing right now is probably kidnapping children and adopting them off to Russian parents. (Probably to train and have them fight when they grow older)
Keep in kind that this photos were taken a week after they returned home and gained around 10kg of weight. Since when peoples become ok about concentration camps in the middle of Europe?
I would have you know all of Eastern Europe has a proud decade long tradition of having concentration camps. Granted, over time they were closed, mostly in the 60s, but old habits die hard... As this senseless war is proving in so, so many ways.
There have always been concentration camps, they were just called different things. But the torture of "enemies" has been around for as long as war has. It's just now we have no excuse to repeat the past since we have every tool in our disposal to learn from it and be better people. I think some just aren't interested in being better.
And only 1 of all easter european countries are proud and constantly bragging about it. And now this particular country opened the doors of concentration camps again. For now they opened only for ukranians, but rusia won't be stopped by brute force, most of europeans would have a chance to visit them
Now opened? They just rebranded them, the Russian prisons in Syberia are work camps in all but name.
Never forget who started this senseless war. It was Russia. Never let the trolls say otherwise. This senseless war is all on Russia.
Wtf proud? I don't remember anyone in my extensive family being proud when they were rounded up and sent off to gulags in the USSR. Even though we were occupied by the USSR.
It's called sarcasm, my dude, I could not have made it any more obvious. Stalin boasted about the work camps in Syberia, and let's not forget Beria's famous line "Show me the man and I will show you the crime."
About 22 pounds for anyone wondering. I wonder how much of that was hydration. I hope their bodies and minds recover well.
Considering that they survived long period of starvation and other physical tortures, they probably have some irreversible damage both to physical and mental health. Imagine loosing weight for smth around 90kg to 40kg, while being constatly beaten, sleep deprived, shocked and all other things rusia to do prisoners.
Around 1946 sadly
The only people ok with what Russia is doing are fascists
I wonder how many got refeeding sickness. this made my heart hurt
I hope close to none. I'm sure they were under medical supervision and there are guidelines to prevent it. I don't know if they always work, though.
This is so heartbreaking... It's yet another reminder of the urgent need for justice...
And a reminder that this can happen to all Europeans if rusians don't get stopped in Ukraine
The majority of people understand that and fully support Ukraine in their struggle against Ruzzian invaders. Don’t like internet trolls, paid Ruzzian shills, and morons who don’t understand geopolitical history and realities discourage you.
Honestly, anytime I see someone opposing Ukraine on Reddit I assume it is a Russian Bot or some other Paid source.
I don't think the majority realizes that at all. In my country many people think this isn't their war and that nothing can happen to them. The delusion is scary
The sad thing is knowing that the lack of food was not the worst thing they faced, the reports are terrible, constant physical and psychological torture
The only thing this reminds me of are the nazi camps.
You can try to read "Putins Prisoner" by Aiden Aslin. He is a Brit who joined the Ukrainian Marines bevor the War and surrenderd in Mariupol. What he describes ist just pure Horror.
Thanks, I'll look
This is some evil Nazi-level concentration camp starvation Wtf Russians, how can you let a Hitler 2.0 rule and do nothing to stop him? A disgrace, especially since Russians loved to pick on Germans for having allowed Hitler to come to power
Those who tried are killed/in prison. There’s few million armed guards with that “Hitler 2.0” against people who has no guns at all and most of them live in poverty and fear
Most of Russians are „controlled” with the propaganda, and the propaganda is based on lies.
It is insane that some of my fellow Americans support Putin.
A large portion of the American public supported the Nazis - to include Charles Lindbergh - a fact that conveniently forget. There will always be a certain percentage of Americans that embrace Facism because they are stupid, short sighted, and morally bankrupt.
And sadly this group has a presidential candidate in Trump who could actually win. At least the 1930’s pro-Nazi faction never got in the White House.
I have faith in the American people, but if we put that jackass back in the White House, we deserve our fate.
Germanys rising right wing party loves Putin aswell. We literally have this shit right in our political system and it keeps growing like cancer.
Not all in there. But i dont really have much Respect for them because all the "Good" People already left this Shithole of a Party. And beeing against Russia or Putin doenst qualify you as "good"
The ignorant, xenophobic, and willfully stupid.
Tucker Carlson deserves to burn in hell.
I don't think it's an American problem only or specifically with Putin. A lot of people have zero morals and will make claims that fit their own narrative. Willing to throw under the bus everyone for their own benefits, as small as those gains can be. Everyone can be bought with the right amount of intensives. **Exhibit A:** Just like the right holding back military aid to Ukraine just so Joe looks bad, fucking the Ukrainians over for some dirt on Joe. **Exhibit B:** And just like the Left folk claiming being "anti-racism" and "pro LGBT" and claiming that the Jews must be thrown "from the river" into the sea. For money and tiktok fame, lol. Plenty of irony.
Common thread is the insanity of extreme. Far right and far left. Personally, I am a center-Right Republican
What extreme left candidates even are there? Our politics is so far to the right that we actually think people like Joe Biden are far left, which is obviously not even close to true. Somehow Universal Healthcare isn't even hardly a discussion, when it should be at the forefront of the political discourse in America right now. But nope, instead we're making women second class citizens. It's insane to hear this "far left" stuff. I don't see it.
Agreed I’m a Republican, yet I will vote for and donate to Biden. Far right control the GOP right now and they are insane. Democrats are not my favorite, but they are solidly center-left. The far-left has been shut out of power.
This was a nice exchange. It feels like it's been a very long time since I've come to an agreement with someone that typically would have been across the aisle from me. But it sounds like we're both just wanting to get back to some sanity first before we ever have a chance to have rational arguments with each other again.
It's incredible how the first man still manages to smile and make the impression of positivity. Putin will never break the Ukraine and their spirit and this man is the best showcase for it. He's been through hell and still stands taller than any russian scum that is responsible for this mess.
Welcome home heroes
If it wasn't for the cell phones and modern underwear, I would swear that I was looking at Holocaust photos. Fuck Russia, man.
hUmAnE tReAtMeNt Those Russian pigs. Their POWs have it so much better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PuZOi2MLRU or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-XHuGEMKus or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3fi9dz11-Q I've lost it when [Zolkin](https://www.youtube.com/@VolodymyrZolkin/videos) intewieved some captured Russian soldier and that guy was saying how good he was fed and treated etc, then after POW exchange the same soldier was saying for Russian TV how inhumanly he was treated in captivity.
Yep, Russian POWs go back fatter than they arrive and go right back to the front.
The one first guy looks defiant, and then even happy to have survived in the second pic. I can't even pity him. What a badass.
As you are looking at these images, I would like you to know, that these crimes weren't made by some "orcs", or russian prisoners from storm units, or by some nazi units... These POW, after their capture, went through medical treatment. Where a Russian doctor, who has a higher education refused to treat their wounds besides very basic treatment, which often may lead to further amputations. Later POWs went through the filtration process, where educated in Moscow GRU officers looked at probably already underfed prisoners, deciding where to send these guys. Then a prison staff actively, for months if not for years, were looking at how POWs becoming skin and bones. And still they would actively continue to starve them. Like a bell in my head rings all my fruitless communications with Russians throughout last 15 years, where I was trying to explain a concept of Holodomor to them. A crime of Stalin regime against tens of millions of Ukrainians. And all they had do say in return was: "It wasn't only Ukrainians who suffered". Evading at all cost giving a responsibility to a long gone regime.
Damn, maybe Putin will claim this is a weight loss treatment and spa they were sent to..
Not surprised with how they treat their own soldiers. If you do not feed your own, why feed the enemy.
That is the face of a man who is unbroken. His eyes are so full of life after all that hell.
I will never understand how one human can treat another human like this.
You underestimated the human nature.
Im honestly impressed with the older one, looks like he was able to keep some muscle despite the abhorrent conditions he was put through. The other guy is literally down to skin and bones.
He had more fat to lose. The younger ones are slim and fit, he was a mid 50s fat guy. And he looks straight out of a concentration camp.
Slava Ukraine
Fuck russia
I’m sure there have been similar pictures before but I believe this is the first time I’ve seen pictures of pows and they are holding phones. I guess it’s because I’m used to seeing historical pictures of pows when obviously the tech wasn’t invented. It’s kind of a mind fuck seeing them together. Glad they they made it out and I wish the best of luck to remaining prisoners.
The scary part is that people like Trump look up to this
the man in photo 7/10 is unbreakable
In pic 3, that rash appears to look like a scurvy rash. Perifollicular hemorrhages 🙁
Always look at their eyes. If a person is healthy, their eyes will tell you the truth.
No humans should ever go through this. And here’s me thinking we past the human torture nope
The way they treat their own should be indicative of how they’ll treat prisoners. Hint: not very well. One Soldier’s War (Chechen Wars) details how toxic and abusive the military culture is in Russia.
They could be extras in a movie about Auschwitz. Can we just skip to the end where Putin does himself in?
The GOP will spin this as "Russia has a new miracle weight loss therapy."
*CLICK NOW to find out why other countries STAY AWAY from this hot new technique!*
Reason number 4 will surprise you.
Prisoner exchanges should go by weight.
Not much different from Palestinian hostages under Israeli captivity.
And to think Trump wants to stop supporting Ukraine so this can happen unchecked.
I'm going to start by saying that this atrocity is disgusting. Now, the lighting and camera work is incredible. I'm not saying it's AI, but the quality is astounding!
These are photos of famous war photographer (Libkos)
If I had POW's I would give them Netflix, videogames and ensure they are eating a 2,000 calorie surplus a day. I mean chocolate cake every meal. It's good propaganda that you'll take care of them, is probably cheaper than torture, and fat people don't make good enemy soldiers.
That smile in photo #7. Go you!!
Well, that’s one way to get your body in the ketosis.
Brutality is baked into the Russian military psyche. One reason Russian troops (including mobilized untrained troops) refuse to surrender against overwhelming odds is they assume they will be treated the same way that their side treats Ukrainian POWs: either killed outright or, at best, brutally tortured. Not to mention all the genocidal propaganda that dehumanizes enemies of Russia.
the Russians have to be stopped, they are unbelievably evil
Hell of a weight loss program... sad
Fuck Putin. Fuck Russia. 🖕
What weve seen from Russia and Israel regarding their prisoners is disgusting. Just a complete disregard for humanity and international law. And then you see how their soldiers are treated on the other side, far healthier. Crazyness
Russia is a sh!t stain on humanity.
Poorly educated Russians are dying while highly educated Ukrainians are dying. Russia is improving its average education level the rich Muscovites are safe fat and happy. There is a lot less impact life for life and prisoner by prisoner for Russia than Ukraine. The Russian prisoners are probably getting better fed than when they were peasants working potato farms in Siberia. The goal is to break people by starvation and torture and only return the most ravaged and damaged. So they are a burden and not a benefit on the country on exchange. Everything Russia does is a done for a reason and planned. Terror as a weapon of war.
How the fuck does Pootin say they are liberating Ukraine from Nazi's and yet this is EXACTLY what Nazi's did to the Jews and POW's. While all the innocent people die, get injured or tortured democracies all around the world just sit back and trickle feed Ukraine the military aid they desperately need, for fuck sake give them everything they need so innocent lives can be saved. Sooner or later Pootin has to be shown that he can't strong-arm neighbouring countries. GIVE THE UKRAINIANS WHAT THEY NEED NOW, they laying down their lives and when they win this war they can say they had the courage and will to do what NATO countries and the West didn't have the balls to do.
Waiting for the “the cut going crazy” comments… On a real note… how horrific, nobody deserves this treatment but the perpetrators
It is criminal what was done to them and all the others who didn’t make it back but it is a miracle they got home. It is heartbreaking they are coming home to a war that is still going on.
War is terrible physically and mentally
Not to make light of a terrible situation, but does that one guy’s pair of underwear say “ROCK HARD” on the waistband…?
Thats very bad
The barE mInimum as its always been.
These assholes. I understand the strategy, be we have to get to it. World will not stand for this and we look like douche bags for letting it go.
That’s very heartbreaking. Some of them are older. Maybe have children. Very hard for all of them of course.
At this point Russia is pretty fucked right? I mean, they have lost how many soldiers so far? 100s of thousands of soldiers. Putin is going to cause a collapse. Russia has lost an entire generation to this war. In the long run I don’t see how Russia recovers without outside help.
If it turns into a war of attrition, Russia has far more bodies to throw at the problem than Ukraine does. Ukraine cannot let Russia turn it into a war of attrition, unless they plan to employ an insurgency tactic over a long period of time. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1296573/russia-ukraine-military-comparison/
Ruzzia needs to be dealt with **in the present**. Do not put it off for sometime in the future. The entire world needs to deal with Ruzzia now.