KYIV: On Saturday, Ukrainian officials rejected a proposal from the Russian embassy in Britain that soldiers from the Azov regiment be subjected to a “humiliating” execution.
“Azov militants receive execution, but death not by killing people but by hanging, because they’re not real soldiers,” the Russian tweet read, posted at the same time that Moscow and Kyiv were exchanging accusations over a strike on a jail housing Ukrainian war prisoners in Russian-controlled territory that killed about 50 people.
They should die in shame, the diplomatic mission of Moscow tweeted overnight.The message was accompanied with a video apparently showing a couple in Russian-held Mariupol alleging they had been bombarded by Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal metal plant during the heated battle for the city, which Twitter said breached its rules on “hateful behaviour.”
“Russia is a state that sponsors terrorism. Only barbarians and terrorists today are capable of discussing capital punishment by hanging on a diplomatic level. Andriy Yermak, chief of the Ukrainian presidency office, posted on Telegram that “Russia is a state sponsor of terrorism.”
Moscow said that Ukraine attacked the facility in an effort to prevent its soldiers from submitting, while Kiev charged that Russia committed a “war crime” by attacking the prison.
There is no difference between Russian officials asking for the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war and Russian troops carrying out the execution in Olenivka, according to a tweet from the foreign ministry of Ukraine’s Oleg Nikolenko. They must all be held accountable since they participated in these war crimes.
The lethal bombardment of the jail holding captive servicemen in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka has been blamed on both Russia and Ukraine.
