Why Russia is ordering its troops to take no prisoners

Putin's commanders in Ukraine are compelling their men to murder defenceless enemies

- Askold Krushelnycky

Russian commanders are ordering their forces to kill Ukrainian soldiers instead of making them prisoners of war in a plan to “terrify” droves of Russian troops into not surrendering. Many newly conscripted and poorly trained Russian soldiers realise their lives are being squandered in human-wave attacks, according to Ukrainian officials.

Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson for Kyiv’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, says orders to kill Ukrainians who could be taken prisoner come from the “highest level” – the Kremlin. The instructions are designed to “terrify” their own soldiers, he adds. The department has representatives from various Ukrainian ministries, with the country’s military intelligence agency playing a key role.

Yatsenko says: “The logic is very straightforward: the killing of defenceless [Ukrainian] military personnel is intended to prevent Russians from themselves surrendering to the Ukrainian army on the basis that if [Russians] are doing this to them, the Ukrainians will do the same to you if you give up. Therefore, don’t surrender to them, rather kill yourself.

“That’s an extremely cruel tactic but we, unfortunately, are dealing with a country, Russia, which traditionally has not abided by any democratic values and for which human life has no worth.”

There has been evidence of the Russian “take no prisoners” policy in multiple places along the front lines but most prominently in the northern battlefields of Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, where Russia shares a long border and where it launched a powerful attack, with its troops pouring in on 10 May.