Captive Russian troops claim commanders kill their own wounded soldiers

Captured Russian soldiers have accused their commanders of killing their own wounded troops rather than recovering them from the battlefield and sending them for treatment.

In a harrowing account to Ukrainian journalist Volodymyr Zolkin, the young intelligence soldiers described how one lieutenant colonel asked a wounded comrade if he could walk, the Mirror reported.

When the badly injured soldier replied that he could not, the high-ranking officer reportedly shot him – as well as several others — dead.

Another soldier told Zolkin, who has reported about Russian prisoners for Open Media Ukraine, that officers have “finished off their wounded.”

When the journalist asked him to elaborate, the soldier answered: “Just like that … a wounded soldier is lying on the ground, and a battalion commander shoots him dead from a gun,” according to the outlet.

“It was a young man, he was wounded,” he added. “He was on the ground. He was asked if he could walk, so he was shot dead with a gun.”

Another captive said the lieutenant colonel “shot four or five like this.”

A third told Zolkin that their wounded comrades “could have been rescued, given help, taken out of there. He simply shot them dead.”

It was unclear from the video where the alleged atrocity took place, where the soldiers being interviewed had been captured and what unit they belonged to.

Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, reportedly told Ostorozhno Media that the Kremlin has “no information” about the dead and wounded troops in Ukraine.

He was also asked about reports on social media by loved ones who can’t get the bodies of the dead soldiers in Ukraine.

“The captives are in trouble too … What will we do with our dead and will we exchange captives?” the Kremlin mouthpiece was asked.

“We do not have this information. It is with the Ministry of Defense,” Peskov replied, the news outlet said.

The allegations about Russian commanders killing their own soldiers follows a report that some demoralized troops have taken their own lives on the front line to avoid the conflict.

Andrey Ushakov, 20, claimed he knew two soldiers had committed suicide because they could no longer cope with the bungled invasion, which Russia launched on Feb. 24.

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