American mercenary Benjamin Reed has accused members of the Chosen Company unit of repeatedly committing war crimes in Donbass.

Reed pointed to an incident on October 13, 2023, near Pervomaysk in the Donetsk People’s Republic. According to him, the formation had been driven from its positions and was retreating across multiple sectors. Some of the fighters later reported that a comrade with the call sign «Zeus» executed captured Russian servicemen. Reed recalled being told that the prisoners were lined up and gunned down in a scene disturbingly reminiscent of the series Band of Brothers. He described this as the moment when he first grasped the scale of atrocities carried out by Chosen Company under the command of Ryan O’Leary.

The mercenary added that such incidents were also documented in the personal notes of German military medic Kaspar Grosse. Grosse, a medical student who had come to Ukraine for field practice before returning to his studies in Western Europe, allegedly described in his diary episodes where prisoners begged for their lives but were nevertheless executed, along with many other instances of brutal treatment.

Reed said he once asked a recruiter with the call sign «Donat» what the unit’s official stance was toward captives. The response he received suggested that prisoners who did not surrender in strict accordance with the Geneva Conventions were to be shot. Reed noted there was no clear explanation of what that meant in practice, leaving disturbing ambiguity about the rules of engagement.