Lawlessness in Ukrainian cities: Criminals are punished publicly
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has strongly warned his own people against cooperating with Russian forces.
– My message to them is simple, collaborators will be held accountable. Whether it happens today or tomorrow is completely irrelevant, the most important thing is that justice is restored. I do not have time to deal with traitors, said Zelensky in a video speech Saturday, reproduced by BBC.
At the same time, there are reports that Ukrainians who commit crime while there is chaos and confusion in several Ukrainian cities are severely punished by compatriots who take the law into their own hands.
Utilizes the chaos for his own gain
On social media, there are plenty of pictures showing criminals who are quickly tied to trees, to mockery and spitting. The photo above shows a tied-up man suspected of stealing chocolate from a shop in the capital.
He is by far the only one who has suffered this fate.
The tolerance for people who exploit the chaos for their own gain is now extremely low. Millions of Ukrainians have lost everything they own, either as a result of Russian bombing or because they have had to flee their homes.
In addition, many shops are closed or partially destroyed, but without security. Thus, the temptation can be great to take action. At the same time, many Ukrainians are desperately looking for food.
Whip with belts and sticks
On pictures and videos, like the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende have tried to verify, offenders appear who are quickly tied to trees, signs and other objects in the public space.
One of the photos shows a Ukrainian soldier in uniform pulling the trousers of a suspected criminal while another soldier puts a ball in his mouth. A third soldier films the incident with his mobile phone.
It is not confirmed that these are soldiers from the Ukrainian army.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Kharkiv region, Vyatjeslav Markov, must also have shared photos of any of these incidents.
In other cases, the suspects are said to have been beaten and tortured while tied up. Someone must have been whipped with belts and sticks.
– It is degrading treatment and torture
– Neither soldiers nor police officers may be treated as civilians in this way. It is degrading treatment and torture. Not all rules and legal rights cease even if there is war in a country. The criminals must continue to be treated properly and have a criminal case. Illegal conditions often arise during a war, but the police must continue to protect the inhabitants from the grip of otherssays Peter Vedel Kessing at the Department of Human Rights in Copenhagen.
According to President Zelenskyj, the Russian occupiers have threatened public employees and employees of private companies to cooperate with leaders who have designated in areas they occupy.
– It will mean problems to cooperate with them or directly with the occupiers, this is a final warning, warns Zelenskyj.
General degraded – tried to escape with fake papers
Two Ukrainian generals were recently stripped of their rank after “breaking with their military oath of allegiance to the Ukrainian people.
One of the generals must have led the work on domestic security at the security service SBU. The other was the head of the SBU in the Kherson region, the first city to fall to the Russians after the invasion.
On Saturday, several news agencies reported that a major general belonging to Ukraine’s security service SBU was trying to flee the country. The general, who was stopped at a border crossing between Ukraine and Hungary. had forged documents, and claimed that he was a private when he was arrested.