Russian soldiers have carved swastikas into the foreheads of Ukrainian prisoners of war, a doctor has claimed.

A Ukrainian soldier named only as Serhiy was found mutilated and with psychological trauma upon returning to his home country from Russian captivity.

Dr Olexandr Turkevich said he has been treating Serhiy, who told him how Russian soldiers threatened to ‘take him apart piece by piece’ while in their care.

‘I want your children to know that you’re fascist. That’s why I am cutting deep,’ a Russian soldier allegedly told Serhiy, who was blindfolded, while carving into his face.

Russia maintains that its ‘Special Military Operation’ in Ukraine is a de-Nazification effort aimed at defending Russian-controlled territories in the east and south.

President Vladimir Putin has instructed his armed forces with propaganda claiming Ukraine had been committing genocide against Russian speakers in the region and that the government was organised by neo-Nazis under western influence. 

Doctors believe the Ukrainian prisoner of war was mutilated with a knife in Russian captivity 

Serhiy has received laser surgery to reduce the scarring of wounds he suffered last year

According to Dr Turkevich: ‘These photographs….show what kind of creatures our men are dealing with at the front,’ said the medic.

Serhiy ‘had a swastika carved into his forehead by these pig-dogs…

‘He told how, when they cut his forehead, they said: “If you were an Azov man, I would take you apart piece by piece…”‘

The Azov assault brigade – which played a key role in the defence of Mariupol – is seen by Russians as having far-right links or Nazi links.

Serhiy was left with nothing to clean up the gaping wound he suffered and refused medical treatment as a prisoner of war.

The swastika carved with a knife is ‘direct evidence’ of genocide by the Russians, Dr Turkevich said.

He was ‘infinitely proud’ of the work he was able to do to remove the Nazi branding from the man’s forehead, which doctors believe was carved with a knife.

The medical procedure is under the Neopalymi aesthetic medicine initiative which aims to help Ukrainian servicemen who have suffered disfiguring injuries or torture in the war.

There are now two known Ukrainian soldiers being treated for swastika brandings.

They have received laser treatment in order to reduce scarring. 

‘Badges of shame’ have been used since ancient times. Prisoners, those accused of adultery and religious groups have been branded over the years by different sects as an act of punishment.

Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglorious Basterds famously followed the story of fictitious US soldiers in World War II as they branded Nazi soldiers with swastikas.

Serhiy was captured by Russian forces last December in the occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine.

He was taken to a processing centre and endured two weeks of torture, locked in a basement without food and brought up only to be beaten unconscious, The Telegraph reports.

Serhiy was eventually transferred to Chechnya, a republic of Russia, and released five months after in a prisoner swap.

The soldier still struggles to talk about his experience, according to The Telegraph.

The body of a Ukrainian rape victim, pictured pixelated, shows an exposed torso covered in bruises, with a large Swastika symbol burned and scratched into the skin

Bodies lie on a street in Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, as Russian forces made a “rapid retreat” from northern areas around Kyiv and the city of Chernigiv, on April 2, 2022

Graves of unidentified people killed by Russian soldiers during occupation of the Bucha town, are seen at the town’s cemetery, March 30, 2023

 People walk through debris and destroyed Russian military vehicles on a street on April 6, 2022 in Bucha, Ukraine

In April last year, a woman was found branded with a Swastika, a Ukrainian MP claimed.

Lesia Vasylenko, a parliamentarian for the liberal Holos party, shared an image on Twitter of what she said was the ‘tortured body of a raped and killed woman’.  

The horrifying picture showed an exposed torso covered in bruises, with a large Swastika symbol burned and scratched into the skin. 

‘Russian soldiers loot, rape and kill… Women with swastika shaped burns. Russia. Russian men did this,’ Ms Vasylenko said at the time.

Russia has been accused of committing multiple war crimes during its campaign in Ukraine.

Images from the cities of Bucha and Irpin last year showed the bodies of hundreds of civilians left lying in the streets and buried in mass graves. 

Amnesty International concluded that Russian forces had unlawfully killed civilians in Bucha, Andriivka, Zdvyzhivka, and Vorzel.

‘All those responsible for war crimes should be held criminally responsible for their actions. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, hierarchal superiors… who knew or had reason to know about war crimes committed by their forces, but did not attempt to stop them or punish those responsible, should also be held criminally responsible,’ it said in a statement at the time.

At a meeting in London this March following the issuing of an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, spoke of ‘ruthless’ attacks and ‘atrocities’ by Russian soldiers against civilians and territories.

‘Russia acts with a clear plan to destroy Ukraine and Ukrainian identity,’ he said at the time.

‘The deportation and transportation of thousands of Ukrainian children, including from orphanages and care homes to Russia.

‘Simplifying their illegal adoption process and confirming their citizenship of an aggressive state is very clear evidence of this plan, this is done to cut ties with Ukraine and alter their Ukrainian heritage.

A dead civilian is seen next to his bicycle on a road near the forest in Bucha, April 2, 2022

‘My office has already launched investigations into over 72,000 incidents of war crimes.

‘Isolated and sporadic attacks, we see how Russian foot soldiers are meticulously implementing unlawful orders given by the Kremlin.’

The International Criminal Court’s 123 member states are now obliged to detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory.