Ombudsman reacts to alleged Russian execution of Ukrainian POWs

Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reacted to a video allegedly showing Russian troops executing Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) on Dec. 22, vowing to report "another crime" to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to seek justice.

"The video shows how Russian soldiers shot five captured Ukrainian defenders," Lubinets said in a Telegram post, referring to drone footage released by the 110th Mechanized Brigade earlier on Dec. 22 that appears to have captured Russian troops shooting surrendered Ukrainian soldiers from behind.

One of the press officers of the 110th, Ivan Sekach, told the Ukrainian media outlet NV that Russian troops had shot four encircled Ukrainian soldiers dead. Another two, he said, were already killed by shelling earlier. He said that the incident took place on the Velyka Novosilka axis in the eastern Donetsk Oblast, where Russian troops have recently intensified their push.

Throughout the full-scale war in Ukraine, the visual evidence of Russian troops executing Ukrainian soldiers mounts, showing a stark violation of the Geneva Conventions. It is however difficult to prove such apparent war crimes to the international court, as retrieving such bodies is often impossible.

The 110th brigade suffered a similar incident in February when its troops were withdrawing from the small industrial city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast. Two soldiers who barely escaped encirclement told the Kyiv Independent how six of their comrades, who were unable to flee on foot due to their injuries, were shot dead by Russian troops, citing videos that surfaced on the internet.

The 110th Separate Mechanized Brigade confirmed in a Feb. 19 statement that five soldiers were killed, and the fate of the last one was uncertain.

Yurii Belousov, the head of the department focused on war-related crimes, said in October that Kyiv is aware of 93 POWs who were executed by Russian soldiers across the full-scale war. The number has since passed to include over 100 such cases.

Finishing off the defenseless: How the Russians execute Ukrainian soldiers

Warning: This article contains graphic photos and descriptions of graphic scenes. A decomposed human hand with the remains of flesh, bleak and brown save for one splash of color — two thin blue-yellow rubber bracelets. The colors of the Ukrainian national flag. The hand was from a body of the hund…

The Kyiv IndependentKamila Hrabchuk

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