It must have happened in the middle of the day on 27 August this year: Four Ukrainian soldiers, one of them seriously wounded, are surrounded by Russian forces east of the city of Pokrovsk in Donbas. The situation is hopeless, and the Ukrainian soldiers choose to surrender. In a video allegedly taken by a Ukrainian drone, three of the Ukrainian soldiers kneel on the ground with their hands behind their heads. Then they are attacked by what is probably a Russian helicopter. In a close-up from the video, the three lie motionless on the ground. The fate of the fourth, seriously wounded soldier, is unknown. The video was first reported by CNN, which has also published an excerpt of it. Videos to show more executions On 6 September, the Ukrainian public prosecutor chose to launch a formal investigation into what happened on 27 August. EXECUTED?: This photo, released by the Ukrainian public prosecutor, purports to show the three Ukrainian soldiers surrendering – before being shot. Photo: The public prosecutor in Donetsk In another video, which has circulated on social media, we can see what is supposed to be a captured Ukrainian soldier lying on the ground. He is then shot several times at close range by what is supposed to be a Russian soldier. The Russian soldier says in the video that he has the right to kill because the Ukrainian soldier has attacked what he believes is Russian soil. This video is so brutal that news cannot show it. On 3 September, three Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered are said to have been shot near the town of Toretsk, where heavy fighting is currently taking place. UN: Many executions in a few months According to the Ukrainian public prosecutor, they have documented 73 cases where Ukrainian prisoners of war are brutally executed after they have surrendered. The execution of the soldier Oleksandr Matsievskij last year, which was also filmed and spread on social media, attracted the most attention. According to a report from the UN published on 27 March this year, Russia had executed around 30 Ukrainian prisoners of war in just a few months. The videos that have been published in recent weeks have shocked many, even outside Ukraine. On Sunday, Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that as a result of the brutal executions, Russian prisoners of war will no longer be allowed to call their relatives home in Russia. – They will still be allowed to send letters to family and friends, so what we are doing is not a violation of the Geneva Convention for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Lubinets said, according to the website Ukrainska Pravda. – Not our war Ukraine claims that during the latest offensive into the Russian Kursk province they have taken more than 600 prisoners of war. A Swedish TV team from SVT has met some of the prisoners of war who are in a prison in Sumy in north-east Ukraine. – This is not our war, says one of the Russian prisoners of war, who is slandered and anonymised in the reportage. TAKEN PRISONER: On 17 August, foreign journalists were able to meet some of the Russian soldiers who were captured during the offensive in Kursk. Photo: AFP The Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War does not prohibit interviewing these prisoners, but requires caution because they may be in a very vulnerable situation. The Russian prisoners of war that SVT has spoken to confirm that right now it is not possible for them to call home, but say they hope that the Red Cross can help them with this. Russia has categorically denied that its soldiers execute prisoners of war, and has for its part said that it is the Ukrainians who have been guilty of this. Among other things, in connection with an incident in the town of Makiivka in Luhansk in autumn 2022, which the New York Times has mentioned. Hope for more exchanges Russian President Vladimir Putin said in June that the country has captured more than 6,400 Ukrainians, while some 1,300 Russians are in Ukrainian captivity. Ukraine has previously said that some 4,300 Ukrainians, both soldiers and civilians, are being held in Russian captivity. Many of these were captured during the battle for Mariupol in spring 2022. After the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk in August, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, Ukraine has captured 600 new Russians. The country is now trying to use these to bring about new prisoner exchanges with Russia. The last major exchange took place on 24 August, when 115 prisoners from each of the countries were exchanged. MARKING: On September 8, the families of Ukrainian soldiers in Russian captivity demonstrated in Kyiv. Photo: AFP In Ukraine on 8 September there were several demonstrations in support of the thousands of soldiers and civilians who are still in Russian captivity. Listen to the foreign affairs editor’s podcast here: Published 10.09.2024, at 16.46
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The Russians execute Ukrainian prisoners of war – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
