Russian embassy in UK says Ukraine's Azov prisoners ‘deserve a humiliating death’

The Russian Embassy in the UK has stated that captured fighters of Ukraine’s Azov battalion deserve “death not by firing squad but by hanging”.

“Azov militants deserve execution, but death not by firing squad but by hanging, because they’re not real soldiers. They deserve a humiliating death,” the Russian diplomatic mission said in a tweet.

Yesterday, officials of the self-proclaimed Donetsk “people’s republic” (“DPR”) accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of conducting strikes on the former prison in the village of Olenivka, where Ukrainian soldiers were being held. According to the “first deputy minister of information of the DPR” Daniil Bezsonov, 53 people were killed in the strike and 75 were injured. The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine stated that fighters of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organisation, were involved in the attack.