Captured Russian Soldiers Will Be Tried As 'Terrorists' Not Prisoners of War - Ukraine Army

“Special forces never take documents when they go to attack the other side. They don’t have any IDs,” said Ruslan Kavatsiuk advisor to the chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces of the two Russian Special Forces operatives captured in Ukraine. According to Kavatsiuk the men had in their possession weapons which are only issued to Russian Special Forces operatives and are not available in Ukraine.

Kavatsiuk told Hromadske that Russia and its Special Forces use local separatists, volunteers and recruits as shields as well as testers. "They send them in four or so waves against the Ukrainian Army. They are trying to see where we have our weapons, where we are strongest and where we are weakest. Then they send in the regular Russian Army," said Kavatsiuk of Russian tactics in Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, the two officers were captured in Shchastia, Luhansk region by the Ukrainian 192nd Brigade. A video was then released by Ukrainian MP Borys Filatov on 17 May, 2015 of one of the officers telling his Ukrainian interrogators he was part of a 14-member Russian special forces spying mission in Ukraine. Kavatsiuk told Hromadske that because Ukraine has not officially declared a state of war, these captured men will be tried as terrorists and not treated as prisoners of war.

Though President Poroshenko told the BBC in an interview that the Ukrainian forces have captured around 80 Russian soldiers, Kavatsiuk declined to comment on an exact number, stating only that the it was in the “dozens”.

Hromadske International's Nataliya Gumenyuk and Ian Bateson spoke with Ruslan Kavatsiuk on May 24, 2015.