Russia likely coercing Ukrainian POWs to fight in Russian Military: ISW

Russian military authorities have “likely coerced” Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) into fighting for their side in Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank.

In a Friday assessment of the war in Ukraine, the ISW said the creation of this “volunteer” formation by Russia “would constitute an apparent violation of the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War.”

The ISW said the battalion’s creation was documented on Friday by numerous Russian state-owned media outlets. RIA Novosti, one of the largest Kremlin-backed news outlets, said the battalion was formed from former military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who entered service in the Russian military after taking an oath. The fighters are currently training and will serve on the front line in Ukraine, RIA Novosti reported.

Around 70 Ukrainian POWs from various penal colonies have reportedly enlisted in what is known as the “Bogdan Khmelnitsky” battalion. According to the ISW, these Ukrainian servicemen were coerced into volunteering for “recruitment” into Russia’s military.

In detailing how Russia coercing POWs into its forces could violate the Geneva Convention, the ISW wrote that the international agreement states that “no prisoner of war may at any time be sent to or detained in areas where he may be exposed to the fire of the combat zone” and shall not “be employed on labor which is of an unhealthy or dangerous nature.”

Newsweek reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense via email for comment.

The alleged move to force Ukrainians to fight in the Russian armed forces comes as Moscow continues to suffer heavy casualties in the war Russian President Vladimir Putin launched on Ukraine in February 2022.

Multiple reports have detailed how Putin’s troops reportedly suffer from low morale. The ISW wrote in an August assessment that the morale of Russian troops on the front line had been diminished as Kyiv’s forces continued to succeed on the battleground. The situation was said to be especially pronounced in the south of Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces were conducting many counteroffensive operations at that time.

The ISW wrote that Ukrainian strikes on Russian rear areas were “demonstrably degrading” the morale of Russian forces in Ukraine, and this “could threaten the stability of Russian defenses on multiple critical areas of the front.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine confirmed earlier this week that its armed forces had recently created a battalion made up entirely of Russian citizens who traveled to Ukraine to fight against Putin’s forces.

Volunteer groups of Russian soldiers, such as the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, have already been fighting in Ukraine alongside Kyiv’s forces, but this newly-formed “Siberian Battalion” is the first known unit of Russians that is part of the formal Ukrainian army.

“We can confirm the information about the creation of the Siberian battalion, which operates in the ranks of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Andriy Yusov, representative of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), told the Kyiv Post.