British Ex-Soldier in Russian Jail Says He Feels Abandoned

Terrible.

Most Brits in Britain also feel abandoned by the UK government. They are a revolting collection of politicians.

I feel sorry for the guy. But he was fighting in a foreign legion.

Hmm. What did he think would happen if he were captured? He could say sorry lah and be given a ticket home?

This may sound harsh, but why should the UK government be responsible? He went to the Ukraine of his own accord and was paid (a pittance) as a mercenary. He only has himself to blame. Having said that, I do feel sorry for him. Spending 15 years in a Russian jail can't be fun.

He won't be spending 15 years in a Russian/pseudo-Russian jail (he is being held in illegally occupied Ukraine). When this war is over, and it will end, there will be a settlement necessary for a post-Putin Russia to enjoy some sort of readmission to the so-called international community.

It is not the UK government's fault that he has not received adequate treatment from the Russian authorities. The blame is firmly at the feet of the Russian authorities, who have a duty to all POWs, not to deny them medical care.

He joined the International Legion, a formal unit within the Ukrainian Army Forces. He deserves to be treated as a Prisoner of War, under the Geneva Convention. He was captured on Ukrainian territory. The charges are trumped up. Those accepting of those charges are nothing more than foolish stooges of Moscow.

https://www.ildu.com.ua/faq/

Who are the International Legionnaires? Are they part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine?

Yes, all units to which International Legionnaires are recruited are a structural part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

There was a forum member, I don't know if he is alive or dead now, who was part of this.

• French Foreign Legionaires are not mercenaries.

• Gurkha soldiers serving in the British and India Armies are not mercenaries.

• Irish citizens taking the King's Shilling and serving in the British Armed Forces are not mercenaries.

• Green Card holders serving in the US military are not mercenaries.

Wagner Group fighters were mercenaries, because they were not an integrated part of the Russian armed forces.

Davies was from Southampton, but lived apparently in Yorkshire. He served 12 years in the Royal Regiment of Scotland, before being dismissed for cannabis charges. So drug offender, doing the maths, he went straight from court martial to a train to Poland. As a drug user, likely a weak character, though he is apparently under difficult conditions, at least based on the letters sent to an activist in Estonia.

He gave a very Russia friendly, UK bashing interview, painting the Ukrainian brass as baby killing donkeys, but praises Russian soldiers, apparently shortly after capture:

I'm not sure how much of his story is true; that he spent 12 years in the army, but they wouldn't give him a gun because he was off his head, yet he somehow ended up being a Javelin instructor

Just like how British POWs were mistreated by the Nazis and the Japanese, the British government has limited influence over Davies' plight, all the more in that he is held by illegitimate authorities in Donetsk. I believe he has written the letter to the BBC under duress, is a desperate effort by a failing fascist regime to orchestrate sympathy among the naive in the West. Apparently, that's brought success. The BBC has made a mistake publicising this letter in the way that it did. More specifically, I point the finger at Will Vernon, a Russian speaking correspondant for the Beeb. He's been "exchanging letters" with Davies. Wonder how that happened, why he was picked out. In the Korean War, it was a well developed tactic by the Chinese and North Koreans to coerce British POWs to write pleading letters home. You just need to find the Useful Idiot to amplify them.

The irony is that every single Russian soldier on the front line is a contractor. That means he or she is a volunteer receiving a bonus for fighting, over and above what conscripts would be paid.

Let’s think about this differently. Was this dude a mercenary soldier or a guy who believed in Slava Ukraini?

Int’l fighters, most of them untrained rushed to Republican defence during the Spanish Civil War.

Why? Because they were Antifa! Franco won and was dictator for just shy of 39 years. He fell in league with the Nazis a furnished a list of 6k Spanish Jews to Himmler.

Spain officially remained neutral and I can find no evidence that these Spanish Jews were persecuted or deported.

2-35k Jewish refugees were allowed to pass through Spain or hide there for the duration of the war. Some returned after centuries of exile in Northern Morocco, as well as Ashkenazis from Europe and Latin America.

Many of these became productive Spanish citizens. Today, there are 40-50k Jews living in Spain.

48k Spanish Jews are living in Israel but there were only 3k applications to the Jewish Agency under Right of Return.

Fer Chrissakes, dismissed for cannabis! That certainly doesn’t indicate a ?weak character “or even “drug user”!

The UK has a responsibility to look after foreign prisoners and demand int’l Geneva Convention rules.

14 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Let’s think about this differently. Was this dude a mercenary soldier or a guy who believed in Slava Ukraini?

Int’l fighters, most of them untrained rushed to Republican defence during the Spanish Civil War.

Why? Because they were Antifa! Franco won and was dictator for just shy of 39 years. He fell in league with the Nazis a furnished a list of 6k Spanish Jews to Himmler.

Spain officially remained neutral and I can find no evidence that these Spanish Jews were persecuted or deported.

2-35k Jewish refugees were allowed to pass through Spain or hide there for the duration of the war. Some returned after centuries of exile in Northern Morocco, as well as Ashkenazis from Europe and Latin America.

Many of these became productive Spanish citizens. Today, there are 40-50k Jews living in Spain.

48k Spanish Jews are living in Israel but there were only 3k applications to the Jewish Agency under Right of Return.

Fer Chrissakes, dismissed for cannabis! That certainly doesn’t indicate a ?weak character “or even “drug user”!

The UK has a responsibility to look after foreign prisoners and demand int’l Geneva Convention rules.

Spain sent huge numbers of troops to fight in Russia.

I have already explained to you he was not a mercernary. He joined the Ukrainian Army, not an unofficial militia. Many men in the American forces are not citizens. They are also not mercenaries. For someone who apparently is a bit of a barrackroom lawyer, you don't know the law so well. The Geneva Convention defines what a mercenary is. Under Protocol 1 of the 1977 Geneva Conventions, a "mercenary" is strictly defined as someone who is not a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict.

It makes no difference why he was there. All sorts of things motivate Gurkhas, Irishmen, Fijians, Jamaicans, Zimbabweans etc to join the British Army. It might be for the money, it might be for a cause, it might be for the adventure (the same reasons those who went to Spain). The first Irishman to die in Iraq was Cpl Ian Malone of the Irish Guards. Maybe not that remarkable, except this Dubliner, a few years earlier, was one of the pallbearers at the Queen Mother's funeral. What was remarkable was he came from a staunchly Republican family. Interviewed in 2002, by RTE, remarked;

At the end of the day I am just abroad doing a job. People go on about Irishmen dying for freedom and all that. That's a fair one. They did. But they died to give men like me the freedom to choose what to do.

Those International Forces in Spain though were never members of the Spanish army. It is interesting you decided to bring the Spanish Civil War into this; it seems you are belittling Ukraine, and dismissing this as just a Civil War (undermining Ukraine's right to existance).

You say you find no evidence that Franco ever persecuted the Jews in Spain. Well you probably didn't look that hard, as you were lining up the Russian invasion of Ukraine as some sort of intervention in a civil war (presumably because you believe the crap about the Ukrainian government being Nazis). Franco banned Jewish religious services. That's called persecution, you tankie idiot. Jewish refugees without onward visas were put in concentration camps and brutalised. Thats persecution. Franco allowed the Gestapo to move into Spain, and not only seize German Jews in Spain, but lead Spanish police raids on Synagogues. That's persecution. Franco had a policy of not recognising Sephardic Jews, abandoning them to the Death Camps. That's persecution. Spanish policy softened in 1944, when it was clear the Nazis were losing, and they appear to have fooled you.

https://www.thejc.com/opinion/far-from-helping-jews-francos-regime-was-implacably-hostile-dkjhip23

The speculation about who the Briton was stops the moment he signed the recruiter's contract, and came under the jurisdiction of Ukrainian military code. There is nothing to "think differently" about. Those who do that are attempting to deflect from blaming Russia, and are apologists for the Moscow regime. The colour of the flag might have changed, but you apparently remain a loyal servant.

Sod you. My Grandfather was a POW of Japan. The Japanese government didn't even tell anyone he was still alive until 1944. They pocketed the Red Cross parcels sent to Tokyo. The British government then, as now, did what they could. You are so <deleted> pro-Russian, you are trying to blame the British government, based off a tabloid report, for the conditions the Russians hold this man in.

You <deleted> didn't watch the interview. The man complained that in the army he had "mental issues" and so turned to drugs. And no, not because of PTSD, because he complained he wanted to go to these places, but they wouldn't trust him with a weapon as apparently he was so <deleted> up. Yeah, you are a pathetic character if you have to resort to a chemical cosh to get through life. 50% of cannabis users use cannabis to self medicate. 25% of those with a severe mental disorder also have CUD. You no doubt will champion drug use. If you are a druggie, you think there is nothing wrong with drugs. That is to be expected. I do not use drugs, I take an opposite view. I'm not stoned half the time, so I am confident about my judgement. Thats for another place to debate.

You are a mad old <deleted> if you think its ok to trust druggies with a SA80, Gimpy, a pocket full of grenades or whatnot. The British Army is not the only employer to have a zero tolerance of drugs due to safety. You've never served your country. You ran away. I knew a bloke in Tennessee from that generation. He went on to become a nuclear plant inspector, until he turned whistleblower. He was opposed to the Vietnam War, but he was particularly dismissive of those who ran away. He explained that a lot of those men who ran off were in no danger of a call up, due to their lottery number. If you had a high number, there was little danger of being called up.. He had a low number, so he did the sensible thing, signed up as a regular in the Air Force, did a few years in Germany, nowhere near a war, pushing a pen.

4 hours ago, Roadsternut said:

Spain sent huge numbers of troops to fight in Russia.

I have already explained to you he was not a mercernary. He joined the Ukrainian Army, not an unofficial militia. Many men in the American forces are not citizens. They are also not mercenaries. For someone who apparently is a bit of a barrackroom lawyer, you don't know the law so well. The Geneva Convention defines what a mercenary is. Under Protocol 1 of the 1977 Geneva Conventions, a "mercenary" is strictly defined as someone who is not a member of the armed forces of a party to the conflict.

It makes no difference why he was there. All sorts of things motivate Gurkhas, Irishmen, Fijians, Jamaicans, Zimbabweans etc to join the British Army. It might be for the money, it might be for a cause, it might be for the adventure (the same reasons those who went to Spain). The first Irishman to die in Iraq was Cpl Ian Malone of the Irish Guards. Maybe not that remarkable, except this Dubliner, a few years earlier, was one of the pallbearers at the Queen Mother's funeral. What was remarkable was he came from a staunchly Republican family. Interviewed in 2002, by RTE, remarked;

Those International Forces in Spain though were never members of the Spanish army. It is interesting you decided to bring the Spanish Civil War into this; it seems you are belittling Ukraine, and dismissing this as just a Civil War (undermining Ukraine's right to existance).

You say you find no evidence that Franco ever persecuted the Jews in Spain. Well you probably didn't look that hard, as you were lining up the Russian invasion of Ukraine as some sort of intervention in a civil war (presumably because you believe the crap about the Ukrainian government being Nazis). Franco banned Jewish religious services. That's called persecution, you tankie idiot. Jewish refugees without onward visas were put in concentration camps and brutalised. Thats persecution. Franco allowed the Gestapo to move into Spain, and not only seize German Jews in Spain, but lead Spanish police raids on Synagogues. That's persecution. Franco had a policy of not recognising Sephardic Jews, abandoning them to the Death Camps. That's persecution. Spanish policy softened in 1944, when it was clear the Nazis were losing, and they appear to have fooled you.

https://www.thejc.com/opinion/far-from-helping-jews-francos-regime-was-implacably-hostile-dkjhip23

The speculation about who the Briton was stops the moment he signed the recruiter's contract, and came under the jurisdiction of Ukrainian military code. There is nothing to "think differently" about. Those who do that are attempting to deflect from blaming Russia, and are apologists for the Moscow regime. The colour of the flag might have changed, but you apparently remain a loyal servant.

Sod you. My Grandfather was a POW of Japan. The Japanese government didn't even tell anyone he was still alive until 1944. They pocketed the Red Cross parcels sent to Tokyo. The British government then, as now, did what they could. You are so <deleted> pro-Russian, you are trying to blame the British government, based off a tabloid report, for the conditions the Russians hold this man in.

You <deleted> didn't watch the interview. The man complained that in the army he had "mental issues" and so turned to drugs. And no, not because of PTSD, because he complained he wanted to go to these places, but they wouldn't trust him with a weapon as apparently he was so <deleted> up. Yeah, you are a pathetic character if you have to resort to a chemical cosh to get through life. 50% of cannabis users use cannabis to self medicate. 25% of those with a severe mental disorder also have CUD. You no doubt will champion drug use. If you are a druggie, you think there is nothing wrong with drugs. That is to be expected. I do not use drugs, I take an opposite view. I'm not stoned half the time, so I am confident about my judgement. Thats for another place to debate.

You are a mad old <deleted> if you think its ok to trust druggies with a SA80, Gimpy, a pocket full of grenades or whatnot. The British Army is not the only employer to have a zero tolerance of drugs due to safety. You've never served your country. You ran away. I knew a bloke in Tennessee from that generation. He went on to become a nuclear plant inspector, until he turned whistleblower. He was opposed to the Vietnam War, but he was particularly dismissive of those who ran away. He explained that a lot of those men who ran off were in no danger of a call up, due to their lottery number. If you had a high number, there was little danger of being called up.. He had a low number, so he did the sensible thing, signed up as a regular in the Air Force, did a few years in Germany, nowhere near a war, pushing a pen.

Wow! No, no, no! I do not in any way belittle Ukraine’s struggle for sovereignty. I apologise if it appeared that way. Yikes! That’s the polar opposite of my position. Not a civil war, not Nazis! Sheesh!

Timeline, please, of large numbers of Spanish troops to Russia? Spain fighting the Soviets in league with the Nazis?

The only reason I brought up the Spanish Civil War were the foreign brigades not to imply any such about Russia and Ukraine.

I’d like some further reference to Franco’s persecution of Jews. None of what you say is in any venue I can find. Yes, I relied upon that lying, antisemitic Wikipedia.

You seem to be saying that those 10-20k Jews fleeing Hitler were put into purpose-made Spanish concentration camps? Surely, they were not such camps by any definition but refugee camps in which exist inhumane conditions all over the world.

Were Jewish religious services held in secret? Honest question: How was Franco’s ban effected? They closed synagogues. What else? Did they lock people up for being observant?

As I pointed out, there was a considerable number of Spanish (Sephardic) Jews. Really, the SS arrived in Spain and sent them off to the death camps? And let the Ashkenazi refugees alone? Ah, you say German Jews in Spain. Were they part of this migration? And however were they found out?

I have now downloaded Architects of Terror: Paranoia, Conspiracy and Antisemitism in Franco’s Spain, to add to my enormous pile of books to read. I could not, however, find España y los Judios, Franco’s 1949 rebuttal to Israel.

Long quote, sorry: “Those who had a ‘marked Jewish character’ were to be barred from entering Spain; the identity papers and residence permits of Jews were stamped with the word ‘Judío’ in red ink; and, as late as 1957, police personal dossiers were referring to individuals as dangerous because of their ‘Israelite origins’.”

“Up to 35,000 (Jews) escaped death by entering Spain.” No onward visa, off to a “squalid” camp.

So what if Franco was an antisemite. That means some of his toadies were, too, or at least found it useful to appear so. “Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik conspiracy” hehe, sure has a ring, don’t it? (Still laughing!)

The review states that Franco’s far right incited the Spanish Civil War because of some crazy conspiracy theory, relying heavily on those Protocols. Amazing that anybody bought the idea that Jews were in league with Commies. Russia has never been kind to Jews.

It always puzzles me that people pay any attention to antisemites and their stupidity. Attention is what they want. If Neo-Nazis actually add violence to their rhetoric, squash them. You’ve tried to insult me a few times in this reply. Why should I give a flying <deleted>? Similarly, why do Jews care?

Thank you for clarifying “mercenary” and all the reasons people go off to fight. I have never had aspirations to join the French Foreign Legion. You may enjoy Sean Connery in The Hill.

“Tankie”? I’m hardly a Stalinist or Maoist or even a Trotskyist. I’m probably a little more socialist than anarchist but it’s a mix. I do not support violence from any nation, wars are never ‘won’.

Regardless, you and I will likely never reach a median about “drugs”. Legal, prescription pharma kills far more people every year than all illegal drugs combined. Legalise it all and put drug war resources into social services. I don’t champion anything other than freedom. Can’t recall the last toke I had, years ago certainly.

It’s fine by me if you wish to think I “ran away” from “serving my country”. My intention was to go to prison as had so many of my friends but then I met this hot Canadian girl. I went to Canada for pussy, nothing to do with the draft. Once there, I did decide I liked it and thought it a better alternative than prison as my views matured. (Oak barrels.)

The draft lottery wasn’t created until a year after I refused to register. My birthday would have put me in the 300s. My point was refusing the war. I did, in fact, “run away” because I was afraid—I was afraid of having to kill people.

Glad to hear your friend did the right thing and became a whistleblower.