A Brit who fought in Ukraine says Russia’s army is so barbaric his unit vowed never to be taken alive

• A global volunteer who fought in Ukraine stated his unit vowed by no means to be taken alive by Russia.

• Macer Gifford informed BI that Putin sees this as a “conflict of annihilation,” with ways taken from ISIS.

• Gifford gave a stark warning to onlookers who view it as only a “conflict on the sting of Europe.”

A global volunteer who fought in Ukraine informed Enterprise Insider that Russia’s armed forces have such a popularity for brutality that his unit agreed by no means to be captured alive.

Russian forces are “extremely harmful, oftentimes fanatical or determined individuals that might torture you and kill you in the event that they caught you,” stated Macer Gifford, the nom de guerre of British former dealer Harry Rowe.

A veteran of the Ukrainian military, who beforehand volunteered to fight in Syria, Gifford fought in key areas in Ukraine, together with in Kherson and Lyman.

He spoke to BI’s Authorized Account in regards to the realities of preventing Russia, and the robust selections his unit needed to take.

‘Each depth of depravity’

Whereas some Russians have reported torture and ill-treatment by the hands of Ukrainian captors, it has largely occurred on the level of seize and “stopped when prisoners arrived at official locations of internment,” a UN investigation discovered final yr.

Not so Russia. The investigation stated that there’s “widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment” of prisoners of conflict all through Russia’s whole system of internment. This consists of beatings, electrical shocks, sexual violence, suffocation, sleep deprivation, and mock executions, it stated.

There have additionally been killings: Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Matsievsky turned a trigger célèbre after he was compelled to dig his personal grave earlier than being shot in captivity, the BBC reported.

“Russia has gone to each depth of depravity you would presumably think about,” Gifford stated.

That is why his unit entered right into a pact — even expelling one member who tried to give up throughout a firefight, he stated. There was an settlement that “nobody within the unit was allowed to be taken alive.”

Acknowledging that each one wars are violent, Gifford stated he was nonetheless “genuinely shocked” by what he noticed preventing towards Russia.

Studying from ISIS

Gifford believes that Russian forces realized lots of their extra brutal ways in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave navy assist to Syria’s then-president, Bashar Assad, beginning in 2015, supplying navy tools and air strikes to push again insurgent teams, together with the Islamic State, also called ISIS.

Nevertheless it’s the jihadist group that seems to have offered a mannequin for Russian troops in Ukraine, Gifford stated.

The “degree and scope” of Russia’s barbarity on civilians, he stated, reminded him “of the identical ways that the Islamic State used.”

Gifford recalled how, throughout his time preventing in Syria, he would discover cages, torture devices, and mattresses with chains subsequent to them for holding feminine captives in Islamic State-controlled areas.

“I believed that the Islamic State was a fringe, that it was a singular factor,” he stated, however in his view, “lots of their brutal practices have been adopted by Russia — primarily, I suppose, as a result of they have been so efficient in Syria,” he added.

Russia’s conflict machine

Gifford described Russia’s conflict machine as “extremely massive and extremely harmful.”

However whereas Russia leads in scale — its military is on track to develop to 1.5 million energetic troops — its forces have been “decimated” in Ukraine, he stated.

Russia’s method to conflict is about scale and “meat wave” assaults by which astonishing numbers of casualties are tolerated, Gifford stated.

The “actual variations” between the international locations come right down to “the way in which they worth life,” he added. “The Ukrainians are preventing for his or her lives. Russia is simply preventing for extra territory, and that is the distinction.”

However Gifford confused that Ukraine’s allies must cease seeing the conflict as “a battle on the sting of Europe,” and that for Putin it means rather more.

For him, it is “a conflict of annihilation,” Gifford stated. It is “the conflict to finish all wars within the eyes of Vladimir Putin.”

Russia has routinely denied allegations of conflict crimes. The Russian Ministry of Defence did not reply to a request for remark.

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