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Military operation in Ukraine

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Ukrainian POW in Kursk Region says his fellows engaged in marauding

As the Federal Security Service reported, "the POW testified that in case of resistance by the local population they had orders to shoot everyone on the spot"

MOSCOW, August 12. /TASS/. A Ukrainian soldier detained by Russian border guards in the Kursk Region has testified to cases of looting by other servicemen and commanders’ orders to shoot civilians who might offer resistance, the public relations center of the Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

"The FSB’s border guards in the Belovo district of the Kursk Region detained a serviceman of Ukraine’s 80th separate airborne assault brigade with the assistance by local residents," the FSB said. In the video the man introduced himself as Ruslan Poltoratsky, 26.

"When questioned, the POW testified that in case of resistance by the local population they had orders to shoot everyone on the spot. When entering communities in the Kursk Region the Ukrainian soldiers engaged in looting and seized everything they could carry with them," the FSB quotes the POW as saying.

In the video of the interrogation, Poltoratsky said that before entering the Kursk Region, "the commander instructed us that men (local residents - TASS) should be shot in the legs and thrown into a cellar or basement. Those caught while carrying weapons must be shot. According to the detainee, "there were no specific instructions about prisoners; most likely we were just not expected to take any."

"When they entered people’s homes, yes, there was looting. They took away everything they saw. Everything valuable and everything that could be taken away," he confessed.

According to the POW, when his group was carrying out the task of providing fire support for Ukrainian units engaged in combat with the Russian army in the Kursk Region, he was abandoned by his fellow servicemen and attempted to return to Ukraine on his own and was subsequently detained.

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Military operation in Ukraine

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