In an unprecedented war crime, 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) were executed by Russian forces to whom they were surrendering in the Pokrovsk district of eastern Ukraine.
The atrocity came to light through a video released on Telegram on Oct. 1.
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The grainy footage shot by a Russian drone shows a group of captured Ukrainian soldiers emerging from a trench in a forested area under enemy control. Once the Ukrainians have been formed into a line, Moscow troops deliberately open fire with automatic weapons and the POWs fall to the ground. After the initial volley, it appears those Ukrainians still showing signs of life are finished off at point-blank range.
According to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General the videotaped atrocity “is the [single] largest reported case of the execution of Ukrainian POWs on the front line.”
“[This is] yet another indication that the killing and torture of prisoners of war are not isolated incidents,” Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said on X. “This is a deliberate policy of the Russian military and political leadership.”
The date when the incident occurred has not yet been established, but is currently being investigated by the office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General.
Law enforcement has emphasized that these actions constitute a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions, in particular the Third Convention which lays down rules for the treatment of prisoners of war and civilians during wartime, and as such are classified as a grave international crime, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
ISW Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, November, 4, 2024
The incident was reported less than a week after the independent UN international commission of inquiry into violations in Ukraine published yet more evidence of widespread torture of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war by Russian authorities in both occupied Ukrainian territory or after being incarcerated in Russia itself.
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