Since December 2023, Russian forces have perpetrated at least 15 executions of Ukrainian soldiers attempting to surrender, Human Rights Watch revealed in their latest report, urging for these incidents to be thoroughly investigated as potential war crimes.
Utilizing drone footage and social media video clips, particularly from platforms like X and Telegram, Human Rights Watch identified multiple instances of Russian soldiers executing Ukrainian soldiers seeking to surrender.
These executions, according to human rights advocates, do not seem to be isolated occurrences but rather part of a pattern of behavior.
Russians execute at least 15 Ukrainian (Credits: RFE/RL)
The Prosecutor General’s Office in Ukraine announced on April 9 that they had initiated 27 investigations into Russian executions involving 54 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs).
Yurii Bielousov, the Head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed during the Armed Conflict, emphasized that accountability should extend beyond just Russian unit commanders to encompass the highest military and political leadership of the Russian Federation, as these actions reflect a broader policy.
HRW confirms execution of Ukrainian soldiers (Credits: RFE/RL)
Reports from the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) corroborate the pattern of Russian executions of Ukrainian POWs.
A report spanning from February to July 2023 documented six such cases, while a follow-up report published in March 2024, covering the period from December to February, identified an additional 12 instances of Russians executing Ukrainian prisoners of war.
These acts are part of a broader pattern of violations of international humanitarian law by Russia in Ukraine since the outset of the full-scale invasion. According to Andrii Kostin, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, as of March 29, they have documented a staggering 124,000 Russian war crimes in the region.
