Russian Forces Have Liquidated Georgian Mercs Involved in Torture, Murder of Russian PoWs, MoD Says

Militants from the so-called 'Georgian Legion', a fighting force made up of ethnic Georgians and other foreigners fighting in Ukraine, has been accused of grizzly war crimes against Russian forces, including the on-video torture and execution of captured PoWs.

Russian forces have liquidated two groups of foreign mercenaries near Lisichansk, Lugansk on Sunday, including members of the 'Georgian Legion' involved in the torture and killing of disarmed Russian servicemen, Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov has announced.

"On June 26, in fighting three kilometers from the Lisichansk oil refinery in the Lugansk People's Republic, Russian units destroyed two mercenary sabotage and reconnaissance groups totaling 14 militants. The first group was 'international' and consisted of citizens of various European states. The second included only mercenaries from Georgia, part of the so-called 'Georgian Legion'," Konashenkov said in a briefing Monday.

"The liquidated Georgian militants were involved in the brutal torture and murder of Russian servicemen near Kiev in March of this year...We found and punished them," the spokesman said.

Konashenkov stressed that the MoD keeps tabs on all mercenaries suspected of crimes against Russian forces.

The so-called Georgian Legion was formed in 2014 and led by Mamuka Mamulashvili, a notorious, battle-hardened Russophobe who fought in Chechnya in the 90s, in the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict in 2008, and in the Donbass from 2014 onwards. In the latter conflict, Mamulashvili and his troops sought to crush the fledgling Donbass republics, which proclaimed independence from Ukraine in the aftermath of the US-backed coup in Kiev in February 2014. In 2017 and 2018, Italian and Russian journalists revealed the mercenary's direct involvement in the coup, including the coordination of the mysterious sniper attacks against both protesters and Ukrainian riot police, which helped push the coup plot to victory.

After Russia began its special operation in Ukraine in February, the 'Georgian Legion' quickly garnered international headlines after being implicated in amateur video showing unarmed, bound Russian PoWs lying on the ground bleeding and being executed as a voice behind the camera taunts them. Days after the footage was released, Mamulashvili said in an interview that his unit would not be "taking any captives" and, commenting on the torture video, said that "sometimes [these people] have their hands tied."

In late March, Henry Hoeft, an idealistic 28-year-old US Army veteran who traveled to Ukraine to join the fight against Russia before quickly realizing who he'd gotten involved with, recounted his experiences with the legion, including a warning from a Ukrainian comrade who told him that legion fighters were "threatening to shoot you in the back" over his refusal to travel to Kiev without being provided with proper weapons.