A Briton who fought in Ukraine says that the Russian army is so barbaric that his unity has sworn not to be taken alive

• An international volunteer who fought in Ukraine said his unity had never promised to be taken alive by Russia.

• Macer Gifford told Bi that Putin considers it as a “war of annihilation”, with tactics drawn from the Islamic State.

• Gifford gave a striking warning to the spectators who consider him a “war on the brink of Europe”.

An international volunteer who fought in Ukraine told Business Insider that the Armed Forces of Russia had such a reputation for brutality that his unity had never agreed to never be captured alive.

The Russian forces are “incredibly dangerous, often fanatical or desperate people who would torture you and kill you if they grabbed you,” said Macer Gifford, the war name of former British merchant Harry Rowe.

A veteran of the Ukrainian army, who previously volunteer to fight In Syria, Gifford fought in key places in Ukraine, including in Kherson and Lyman.

He spoke to Authorized BI account On the realities of the fight against Russia and the difficult decisions that his unity had to take.

'Each depth of depravity'

While some Russians have pointed out tortures and ill -treatment in the hands of Ukrainian kidnappers, this has largely occurred and “stopped when the prisoners arrived in official internment places”, ” A United Nations Survey Found last year.

Not if Russia. The investigation indicated that there is “a widespread and systematic torture and misunderstanding” of prisoners of war throughout the Russia's internment system. This includes blows, electric shocks, sexual violence, suffocation, sleep deprivation and simulated executions, he said.

There have also been murders: the Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Matsievsky became a famous cause after being forced to dig his own grave before being shot in captivity, The BBC reported.

“Russia has gone to each depth of depravity that you could imagine,” said Gifford.

This is why his unit entered a pact-even expelling a member who tried to go during an exchange of fire, he said. There was an agreement that “no one in the unit was authorized to be taken alive”.

Recognizing that all the wars are violent, Gifford said he was nevertheless “really shocked” by what he had seen fighting against Russia.

Learn from the Islamic State

Gifford believes that Russian forces have learned many of their brighter tactics in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin provided military support to the president of the time of Syria, Bashar Assad, from 2015, providing military equipment and air strikes to postpone rebel groups, including the Islamic State, also known as Isis.

But it is the jihadist group that seems to have provided a model for the Russian troops in Ukraine, said Gifford.

The “level and scope” of Russia's barbarism on civilians, he said, reminded him of “the same tactics as the Islamic State used”.

Gifford recalled how, during his time to fight in Syria, he would find cages, instruments of torture and mattresses with channels next to them for having held female captives in Islamic State areas.

“I thought that the Islamic State was a fringe, that it was a unique thing,” he said, but in his opinion, “many of their brutal practices were adopted by Russia-mainly, I guess, because they were so effective in Syria,” he added.

Russian war machine

Gifford described the Russian war machine as “incredibly large and incredibly dangerous”.

But while Russia leads to scale – its army is on the right track To reach 1.5 million active soldiers-his forces were “decimated” in Ukraine, he said.

The approach of Russia in war concerns the attacks on scale and “wave of meat” in which an astonishing number of victims is tolerated, said Gifford.

The “real differences” between countries are summed up “the way they appreciate life,” he added. “Ukrainians are fighting for their lives. Russia is just fighting for more territory, and that's the difference.”

But Gifford stressed that the allies of Ukraine must stop seeing war as “a conflict on the brink of Europe”, and that for Putin means much more.

For him, it is “a war of annihilation,” said Gifford. It is “war to put an end to all wars in the eyes of Vladimir Putin”.

Russia has regularly denied allegations of war crimes. The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comments.

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