The First Two Captured Chinese Citizens

Today, investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) spoke with the first two Chinese nationals captured while fighting in Ukraine. We are currently verifying all facts regarding the presence of these and other Chinese citizens within the ranks of the Russian occupying army. Ukrainian intelligence is also actively working on this matter.

As of now, we have confirmed data on over 150 Chinese citizens who have been recruited by Russia to fight in the war against Ukraine. We know the real number is higher. Ukraine views Russia’s open involvement of Chinese citizens in combat on Ukrainian territory as a deliberate step toward expanding the war.

This is yet more proof that Moscow is simply trying to prolong the fighting. Russia doesn’t care who dies in this senseless war—it only cares that the war continues.

What we all need—all partners, all responsible members of the international community—is for Russia to lose the ability to continue this war, especially through the use of foreign nationals like these.

https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official/13828

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago

Article 13 - Humane treatment of prisoners

…prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

Vague, and open to interpretation. Which is why the 2020 addendum was added:

It is thus necessary to strike a reasonable balance… [between] making information regarding prisoners of war public, especially given the high value of such materials, and the possible humiliation and even physical harm they may cause to those who appear in them. Accordingly, any materials that enable individual prisoners to be identified must normally be regarded as subjecting them to public curiosity and, therefore, may not be transmitted, published or broadcast.

Imo there’s a big difference from parading PoWs through your towns and cities for your citizens to insult and degrade, to a photo shared of bound and blindfolded combatants freshly captured, versus a dude voluntarily talking to the camera. Intent matters for mens rea, though that’s never an exoneration.

I’d save the smoke for the (reciprocal, but still) strikes against each other’s urban centers. Just like it’s not cool for an Iskander to hit a Kiev train station, it’s not cool for a Foxbat packed with explosives to target an apartment tower Moscow.