Ukrainian Medic Orders Staff To Castrate Captured Russian Soldiers: 'Russians Will Die Here'

A Ukrainian frontline medic who owns a mobile hospital operating in eastern Ukraine claimed he instructed his doctors to castrate captured Russian soldiers.

"I have always been a great humanist and said that if a man is wounded, he is no longer an enemy but a patient. But now, [I gave] very strict orders to castrate all [captured Russian] men because they are cockroaches, not people," Gennadiy Druzenko, 49, claimed in an interview with Ukraine 24, according to the Daily Mail.

Druzenko is the co-founder of the Pirogov First Volunteer Mobile Hospital (PFVMH), a non-governmental organization made up of civilian healthcare professionals that provides frontline medical care in the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.

Around 500 doctors have reportedly worked with Druzenko's mobile hospital, which deploys civilian doctors and nurses in the conflict zone close to the Russian-backed separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.

It is unclear if Druzenko, who is a lawyer by training, is a licensed physician.

Aside from his castration remarks, Druzenko also told Russian television host Yevgeny Kiselyov that "Russians will die here [in Ukraine] in large numbers."

"Those who [come here] will remember their nightmare on Ukrainian soil. Like the Germans remember Stalingrad," Druzenko said.

Stalingrad, now known as Volgograd, was the theater of a five-month-long battle in World War II between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which ended with a Russian victory and contributed to the weakening of Germany's military.

Druzenko later apologized on social media for his comments and said that his hospital "does not castrate anyone and is not going to," the Daily Star reported.

"Those were the emotions. I'm sorry. We are saving lives. Period," his post on Facebook read.

PFVMH, for its part, also apologized for its co-founder's remarks in a statement released Monday.

The organization "has never engaged and does not plan to engage in any sterilization of the Russian invaders, the more so capture Russian soldiers and officers," the statement said.

Druzenko had "made an emotional statement" that was "provoked by threats against both [Druzenko] personally and his family members," PFVMH explained.

"Our mission is to save lives. We work in strict compliance with the Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War of 1929) and other international humanitarian law requirements, abiding by all the rules and customs of war," the organization said.

The Russian Investigative Committee, the country's main federal investigating authority, has opened a criminal case into Druzenko's comments, according to the Mirror.

Druzenko will face trial under Russian law should he be captured due to his criminal case. He is also set to be put on Russia's international wanted list.