Putting prisoners of war in front of reporters and television chambers is almost certainly a violation of international humanitarian law.
But Ukraine clearly felt that any damage to her reputation that she could suffer by doing so at a press conference this week would be compensated for the fact that two alleged fighters captured in China were present.
The argument was that it was more worthwhile to give them a platform to speak than to protect them “against insults and public curiosity”-something that the International Red Cross Committee says it includes the protection of the media.
China has always claimed neutrality in the Russian war against Ukraine and repeatedly tells its citizens not to get involved in foreign conflicts. However, being a fundamental diplomatic and economic lifestyle for Moscow, Beijing’s actions are closely observed in Kiev.
Dressed on combat uniforms and answering questions in Mandarin, the prisoners of war were watched by armed Ukrainian security personnel, while a translator sat next to him.
Men – whose name CNN does not quote or identify at all – told how financial incentives were essential to their stories.
One of them said he was looking for a way to make money after losing his job during the coronavirus pandemic. The perspective of 25,000 rubles a month in Russia was more than double what he could expect to win in his country.
As he had experience in medical rehabilitation, he told the recruiter that he wanted to do the same in the Russian army. As soon as he arrived in Moscow, however, he was forced to train for a combat function.
The documents were only in Russian, which none of the men said to understand. One of them said it communicated above all through gestural signs.
CNN had access to a Russian military contract that gives a possible indication of what the two prisoners of war had agreed.
The contract, which was shown to CNN by a source of Ukrainian secret services, is written in Russian. For the duration of one year, it compromises the volunteer, among other things, to “participate in combat, to meet the period of mobilization, emergencies and martial law”, as well as to participate in “activities to maintain and restore international peace and security” and prevent “international terrorist activities outside the Russian Federation”.
When they arrived at the battlefield, the instruction was also nonverbal. One of the men told the chaotic moments that preceded their capture in the Donetsk region of Ukraine eastern.
“When we arrived at a forest, my captain said to me, ‘da, da, [“Sim, sim, sim” em russo]giving me a signal to start the attack. But I didn’t know where the target was. We went through many Russian positions and thought we were directing ourselves to our own bunker. I thought he was playing, so I hid. Then I saw the captain [de outra unidade russa] launch a grenade and suddenly there were drones [ucranianos] all or side ”.
The men surrendered. They had been fighting just three days ago.
The role of foreign combatants
Foreign combatants have participated in this war – on both sides – from the beginning.
A list that CNN had access to and shows the non-Russian prisoners detained by Ukraine by the end of 2024, showed six citizens of Sri Lanka, seven of Nepal, as well as individuals from Somalia, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Egypt and Syria, as well as about a dozen former Soviet republics.
In January, Ukraine also captured two North Koreans, part of an estimated force of about 14,000 soldiers sent by Pyongyang to help Moscow’s war effort.
A source of the Ukrainian secret defense services told CNN that Russia needed its foreign fighters because it was now involved in a wear war.
“You can’t keep the long front line only with your own soldiers and you are taking every opportunity to recruit who you can,” the source said.
Since the announcement of the capture of Chinese men last week – which followed the Ukraine statement that he had information about 155 Chinese citizens fighting for Russia – there has been a considerable interest in knowing how they were recruited and if the Chinese government has somehow played an active role.
Admittedly, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did nothing to restore this speculation when asked by journalists, it was thought that the presence of Chinese citizens in Ukraine was the result of Beijing’s official policy.
“I don’t have an answer to this question yet. Ukraine security service will work on it,” he said last week, adding, ‘We’re not saying that someone gave some order, we don’t have that information.’
But Zelensky also said that Kiev believed Beijing was aware of what was happening.
The prisoners of war endeavored to indicate the opposite, both stated that they were acting individually and indicated recruitment videos published in Tiktok as the source of their inspiration.
One of these videos has been in Chinese social networks for over a year and seems to have been originally created for a Russian domestic audience, with later Chinese subtitles.
It shows what seem to be Russian soldiers to train and dressed in facts of combat on the ground. “It’s a man, be a man,” he says in Russian, along with Chinese subtitles, who also explain the payments offered by the registration.
It is impossible to say whether subtitles were added by an official entity or social networking users, but one of the men said the videos echoed in China, where military prowess are highly valued, but opportunities for direct combat experience are rare.
Why is the moment important
Although Ukraine has previously organized a press conferences with prisoners of war, including one that involved combatants from Nepal and several African countries, its decision to put Chinese prisoners on the platform remains unusual.
The moment is important.
Kiev’s attempts to get the best in his battle with Moscow for US President Donald Trump’s ear, whose administration seems to be making little progress in his efforts to convince Kremlin to agree with a total ceasefire.
Washington has also been strongly focused on China, who some in the White House see as the main global opponent of the United States, and that the administration has been reaching with progressively larger import tariffs.
From Zelensky’s perspective, there is a clear interest in amplifying everything that suggests that China’s support to Russia can be more than diplomatic and economic.
But it may not only be to the US that the Ukraine leader is sending a message.
Anders Puck Nielsen of Royal Danish Defense College believes Kiev is also anxious about recent European Union openings to China as the two economic powers seek possible joint solutions to Trump’s commercial wars.
“Suddenly, it seems that there may be potential for Europeans and the Chinese to find common ground also in other issues,” Nielsen told CNN.
“It was clearly a political move to highlight this aspect [dos combatentes chineses no exército russo]”He added.
Beijing certainly saw him this way.
“We exhort the stakeholders to understand the role of China correctly and sobly and not to make irresponsible comments,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian, not to mention names.
Joyce Jiang, Mariya Knight and Daria Tarasova-Markina, from CNN, contributed to this report
