Whistle-blowing is not a common activity among the mercenary soldiers fighting for Ukraine, and it’s viewed as something akin to treason.
But that did not stop Caspar Grosse, a disenchanted German medic from the ‘Chosen’ company, to do exactly that.
Grosse was serving in the unit of ‘international volunteers’ that is led by an American, and he told the NYT how he saw a wounded and unarmed Russian soldier seeking help from his captors.
The Russians plead for medical attention in a mix of broken English and Russian. That is when, a mercenary soldier fired his weapon into the Russian soldier’s torso.
The man fell, still breathing. Another soldier then shot him in the head.
New York Times reported:
“Mr. Grosse said he was so upset by the episode that he confronted his commander. He said he spoke to The New York Times after what he regarded as unwarranted killings continued. It is highly unusual for a soldier to speak publicly about battlefield conduct, particularly involving men whom he still considers friends.”
The Chosen Company is one of the best-known units of international troops – a.k.a. mercenaries – fighting for Ukraine.
“In a second episode, a Chosen member lobbed a grenade at and killed a surrendering Russian soldier who had his hands raised, video footage reviewed by The Times shows. The Ukrainian military released video of the episode to showcase its battlefield prowess, but it edited out the surrender.
In a third episode, Chosen members boasted in a group chat about killing Russian prisoners of war during a mission in October, text messages show. A soldier who was briefly in command that day alluded to the killings using a slang word for shooting. He said he would take responsibility.“
The Geneva Conventions clearly forbid the killing of prisoners of war. Combatants that surrender cannot be attacked and must be safely taken into custody.
According to the German medic, a Greek soldier known as Zeus was at the center of all three episodes.
Retired U.S. Army National Guardsman from Iowa, Ryan O’Leary is the ‘de facto’ commander of Chosen Company.
O’Leary denies that members had committed war crimes.
“Soon after The Times began asking questions, Mr. O’Leary vowed to find out who was speaking to journalists. ‘Some stuff the reporter brought up was only known by a few people’, he wrote in a group chat. ‘But we will cast a wide net regardless to snare the rabbit’.”
Grosse has said that the ‘recruiter’ that sent him to Ukraine told him that it was OK to kill P.O.W.s ‘if they didn’t surrender in the strictest Geneva Convention standards’.
The medic complained to commander O’Leary in front of other soldiers, saying that he wanted prisoners to be in his care and ‘nobody would get to shoot them’.
Here’s the journal depicting the actions by the Ukrainian mercenaries:
“Today a good friend willingly executed a bound prisoner,” the entry begins. “As the prisoner was sitting in a trench blendage with his jacket draped over his shoulders, Zeus came up behind him and shot him into the back of the head multiple times. Going to bed.”
The U.S. Justice Department has the power to investigate these acts, because O’Leary and many other Chosen mercenaries are American.
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