“A 49-year-old owner of a war zone mobile hospital in eastern Ukraine has disclosed that he ordered his doctors to “castrate captured Russian troops” because they are “cockroaches, not people”. Gennadiy Druzenko, was forced to apologize after his interview with the Ukraine-24 channel about Russian military prisoners of war and claimed that he had always been a “great humanist” but changed his beliefs when it came to the Russians.

ads He said: “‘I have always been a great humanist and said that if a man is wounded, he is no longer an enemy but a patient. ‘But now [I gave] very strict orders to castrate all [captured Russian] men, because they are cockroaches, not people.” Druzenko set up the first First Voluntary Mobile Hospital which sends out civilian doctors and nurses in the conflict zone close to the separatist republics in eastern Ukraine.

ads He also told famous Russian TV host Yevgeny Kiselyov: “Believe, all doctors who saved the patients – Russians will die here. Die in large numbers. “Those who [come here] will remember their nightmare on Ukrainian soil. “Like the Germans remember Stalingrad.” The Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case into the comments made by Druzenko, which meant that he could face trial under Russian law.

ads But the medic has since apologized on social media for his comments and claimed that the hospital “does not castrate anyone and is not going to”. He added that his words came from “emotions”. In a statement on the hospital’s website, they said Druzenko “made an emotional statement about the sterilization of the invaders’ and claimed it was ‘prompted by threats against Gennady and his family personally”.