A BLOODTHIRSTY Russian general sent his wife a photograph of severed human ears and boasted about torturing and killing Ukrainian prisoners of war, it is alleged.
Sickening messages said to be sent by serving Commander Roman Demurchiev, 49, were published by Radio Free Europe.
The grim archive, covering the period from 2022 to 2024, exposes some of the clearest new evidence of executions and torture, sanctioned by Vladimir Putin’s savage commanders.
Private messages between Demurchiev and his wife Alexandra, 41, allegedly show the commander sharing an image of severed, blackened human ears.
He then reportedly brags about making the body parts into a garland.
Responding, the mother-of-two is said to have compared them to “pig ears served with beer”.
Demurchiev is currently deputy commander of Putin’s 20th Combined Arms Army.
Other chilling conversations reportedly show Demurchiev offering a POW as a “gift” to a military intelligence officer, identified by the call sign “Grek”.
Demurchiev tells Grek: “I have a prisoner… I can give it to you.
“We just didn’t have time to torture him… but you have plenty of time.”
A photograph shared in the chat helped identify the PoW as a 42-year-old volunteer from Zaporizhzhia, according to RFE.
He reportedly spent more than a year in Russian captivity before being exchanged in 2025.
In messages to colleagues from December 2023, the commander allegedly shared video from a drone with a thermal imager.
The night vision footage is said to show three Ukrainian prisoners being bludgeoned to death with shovels shortly after their capture.
Demurchiev appears to identify the soldiers as Russian convicts who had been recruited into the army, reports say.
He reports the incident to a general, his superior.
The general responds: “The convicts who took the position and chopped up [the PoWs] with shovels, God grant they survive, they must be put forward for medals.”
That same year Putin awarded Demurchiev the rank of Major General.
Under the Geneva Conventions, the torture, execution or mutilation of prisoners of war constitute war crimes.
Demurchiev has not publicly commented on the allegations. Russia’s Defence Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Over 2,500 Ukrainian POWs remained in Russian captivity, as of September 2025, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry said.
And this month the UN said at least 109 captured Ukrainian military personnel, all men, had been executed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It comes days before the war between Russia and Ukraine marks its fourth anniversary.
US-led peace talks this week have stalled, as Ukraine locks horns with the Kremlin over Putin’s demand to take control of significant swathes of territory.
In an update on Friday, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said talks had been “constructive”, but have still not reached a breakthrough.
Kyiv hopes for details on the next POW swap with Russia to be agreed in the coming days, he added.
