'Genocide': Captured Russian Officer Apologizes for War Crimes
From the moment that Russian troops crossed the border into Ukraine, there have been credible claims of war crimes being committed en masse.
In fact, the entire invasion itself, which is in response to exactly zero provocation from Ukraine, is itself a war crime. The ordeal itself has the same sort of energy that an insecure man driving around in a massive truck has, except if that man then just mowed over women and children in the street with it.
There are no real silver linings in these situations, but the fact that Ukraine is holding their own is ostensibly good news for freedom and democracy as a whole, and the way in which captured Russian troops, even officers, react when they get a dose of reality outside of the Kremlin sphere of influence is telling.
A Russian commander captured by Ukraine condemned Moscow’s “genocide” invasion — saying in a remarkable televised statement that the troops were duped into believing Kyiv had been overthrown by Nazis and needed liberating.
National Guard Lt. Col. Astakhov Dmitry Mikhailovich, who was captured along with two other soldiers, said he had been told they were being sent to help Ukraine because it was “dominated by a fascist regime” and that “nationalists and Nazis had seized power.”
“Obviously, this information was unilateral information,” Mikhailovich told reporters in a video that emerged Monday.
And that wasn’t all:
The captive begged for “mercy” from Ukrainians and said he was ready to “go to jail” for taking part in the brutal offensive.
“I feel shame that we came to this country,” the colonel said. “I don’t know why we were doing it. We knew very little. We brought sorrow to this land.”
This is far from the first time that captured Russians have indicated that they were deceived by their government.
Just days ago, teenage Russian troops told their Ukrainian captors that they believed that they were being sent to Belarus for a training mission, only to be issued orders to “liberate” Kyiv from these imaginary “nazis”.
