Russian Soldiers Boasted About Looting, Torturing Civilians In Intercepted Call

Russian forces in Ukraine's Kharkiv province tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), shelled "peaceful" settlements and engaged in looting in the area, Ukrainian authorities alleged.

"We captured two people. We cut one’s ear off as he wasn’t willing to speak. It could have been worse: we could have shot him in the head or quartered him with an APC (armored personnel carrier)," an alleged Russian soldier told his father in a call that was intercepted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ukrinform reported.

"Or still, we could have released 100 bullets, at him, a full machine gun case, make a colander of him. Well, at most, we could have cut his fingers off," added the Russian service member, who was labeled by the SBU as a "Ruscist," a portmanteau of the words Russia and fascist that refers to Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine.

Russian forces also shelled a "peaceful" village in the Kharkiv region and engaged in looting, the soldier said in the call.

However, "such inhumane actions" did not anger the soldier's father, who was instead glad that he "raised an executioner who might get a reservation in a Cargo 200 refrigerator at any moment,” the SBU stated.

The deliberate killing or abuse of POWs is considered a war crime under the Third Geneva Convention. Meanwhile, both the bombing of undefended villages and the pillaging of settlements are in violation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Russian soldiers were ordered to kill Ukrainian prisoners in the partially Russian-occupied region of Luhansk, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine previously alleged. Ukrainian fighters have also been accused of abusing captured Russian soldiers.

The ICC has sent a 42-member team consisting of investigators, forensic experts and support staff to Ukraine to investigate alleged war crimes committed in Russia's invasion.

They will improve the gathering of witness testimony and identification of forensic materials and help guarantee that "evidence is collected in a manner that strengthens its admissibility in future proceedings" at court, said Karim Khan, the Netherlands-based court's chief prosecutor.