ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Ukraine has captured a number of Iraqi nationals who were fighting alongside Russian forces in the war against Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official confirmed to Rudaw on Monday.
Oleg Gushchyn, legal counsellor at Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, told Rudaw during a UN press conference that Iraqi citizens captured on the battlefield are being treated as prisoners of war (POWs), rather than mercenaries.
"Yes, there is [are] Iraqi servicemen, I mean Iraqi fighters, within the Russian armed forces. Yes, we captured some of them. We treat all of them as POWs. No one [is] considered like a mercenary," Gushchyn said.
"The only one thing that I cannot tell you precisely that is [the] number of Iraqi citizens who are within our captivity because of security measure and because of the relation between two countries. But, yes, once again, we have [them]," he added.
The issue of Iraqis, including people from the Kurdistan Region, fighting for Russia has long been raised by Iraqi and Ukrainian officials and carries strict legal penalties in Iraq.
In February, former Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji said the Iraqi government had decided to tighten legal and security measures against citizens who join foreign militaries, particularly those involved in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Gushchyn said Iraqi officials have been allowed to contact the captured Iraqis, but he did not disclose whether or not Baghdad has sought to repatriate them.
The Ukrainian official said his country is currently holding prisoners from 51 countries.
The Ukrainian official’s remarks came during a press conference at the United Nations, where a former prisoner of war also described alleged torture while in Russian captivity.
Juan Alberto, a former POW who was released by Russia, alleged that Russian forces subjected him to electric shock torture.
"They forced me to take one of my prison shoes and socks off, and put my foot in a plastic bag with water in it, and they put an electrical wire in it," Garcia said.
In December, Araji said that "hundreds of Iraqis" were fighting in the conflict.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Iraq, Ivan Dovhanich, told Rudaw around the same time that Kyiv was working "closely" with Iraqi authorities to address the recruitment of Iraqi citizens by Russia.
Russia, however, has downplayed the scale of Iraqi involvement. Moscow’s ambassador to Baghdad, Elbrus Kutrashev, told Rudaw in November that "while such cases do exist, they are individual and numbered, not on a large scale as some try to portray."
"I must thank the Iraqi citizens who have taken a supportive stance toward Russia," Kutrashev said, adding that Russia "did not recruit them - they came voluntarily."
"They left their homeland, swept up by the lies of gangs that transport our youth to Russia, and some to Ukraine. They are promised residency through military service and a monthly salary of $2,500," Bakr Ali, head of the non profit Association of Returned Migrants, told Rudaw in April.
Last year, an Iraqi court in Najaf sentenced a man to life imprisonment for recruiting and sending Iraqis to fight for Russia.
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