Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian military has been systematically executing Ukrainian defenders in disregard of international law and humanity.
With each new case of war crimes against Ukrainian prisoners of war, the world becomes more aware of the brutality with which the Russian occupation army violates the Geneva Convention.
According to the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, which Russia is also a signatory to, prisoners of war must be guaranteed life and humane conditions of detention. War crimes also include executions or ill-treatment of prisoners of war.
For ethical reasons, we will not show videos and photos of executions of Ukrainian defenders.
It is worth noting that the number of war crimes that violate all possible norms of international law is growing rapidly. This is manifested in the increasingly frequent cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war, torture, and physical and moral abuse.
Mass executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian army
On September 17, a photo of an executed Ukrainian soldier stabbed with a sword with the inscription “For Kursk” appeared on social media. Grey duct tape is visible on the soldier’s hand, which suggests that his hands were tied before the execution.
Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reacted to the brutal war crime.
The level of barbarism and bloodthirstiness is impossible to comprehend. Such actions are a gross violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, – Lubinets wrote.
Lubinets said that he had sent letters to international organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations, to record another human rights violation by Russia.
In early October, Ukraine received further evidence of the cruelty of the Russian occupiers. On October 1, telegram channels posted information about the execution of 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Donetsk region.
Another war crime was committed by the Russian occupation army near the villages of Mykolaivka and Sukhyi Yar in the Pokrovsk district. The released video showed captured Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen coming out of a forest plantation under enemy control. After they lined up in a line, the Russian military opened fire, shooting the prisoners on the spot. Those who showed signs of life were also killed with machine-gun fire by the Russian military.
According to the prosecutor’s office, this is the largest known case of execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war on the front line.
According to the head of the War Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Yuriy Belousov, on October 15, law enforcement officers managed to identify the names of 13 of the 16 executed soldiers, while three remain unknown due to lack of access to their military unit.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets reacted to the horrific incident and noted that he had reported another Russian crime to the UN and ICRC.
The systematic nature of crimes against Ukrainian prisoners of war must be stopped, and those who committed them must be held accountable! – Lubinets wrote.
On October 10, the world learned about another case of execution of Ukrainian prisoners – nine soldiers of the UAV unit near the village of Zeleny Shlyakh in the Kursk region.
According to Deepstate, Ukrainian fighters went to their positions thinking they were in the relative rear but met Russians. They were forced to shoot back, but the number of BCs was limited, and they surrendered.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has opened a criminal investigation into the incident.
The killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and an international crime. An investigation has been launched into the violation of the laws and customs of war combined with premeditated murder. We are doing everything to identify and punish all perpetrators of crimes committed by the aggressor country against Ukraine and Ukrainians, – said Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin.
The Head of the War Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Yuriy Belousov, also reacted to the execution of Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region.
On the situation in the Kursk region, where nine Ukrainian soldiers were executed. We understand who these soldiers are. The details of the execution of our prisoners of war are now being clarified. We know the location where it happened in the Kursk region, and we are working on two Russian units that may be involved in the execution, – Belousov said in an interview.
On October 18, the Russian military also executed two captured Ukrainian soldiers. While storming a forest plantation near the town of Selydove, they laid the unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war face down. The Russian military held them in this position, pinning their feet to the ground, and after a while, shot them at point-blank range with automatic weapons.
Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets informed the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross about the shooting of prisoners near Selydove so that the organisations could record it
Unfortunately, crimes against the Ukrainian military have become a recurring phenomenon.
Earlier, in June 2024, the Russian military beheaded a Ukrainian defender in the Donetsk region.
Also in August, Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets urgently appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN, as well as to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, after a photo appeared online, allegedly with the body of a Ukrainian prisoner whose head and limbs had been cut off by Russians.
In 2023, on March 6, it became known that the Russian military had shot a Ukrainian prisoner after he said “Glory to Ukraine”. It is not known when the video was recorded.
At the time, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan to launch an immediate investigation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also commented on this horrific incident, emphasising that “Russia is killing people for the very fact that they are Ukrainians, for just one word about Ukraine”.
Later, it became known that the killed Ukrainian soldier was Oleksandr Matsievskyi.
How Russia justifies its war crimes
In an interview with Radio Liberty, former Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Gunduz Mamedov noted that the Kremlin has constantly commented on almost all high-profile crimes, calling them fakes or shifting the blame to Ukraine.
Russian propaganda also actively denied the shootings of the military or spread far-fetched versions of events. According to the Information Resistance publication, on the show of Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, the main commentator on the battles in the Kursk region, Apti Alaudinov, called the execution of 9 soldiers of the UAV unit a “fake” created by Ukraine allegedly to make the Ukrainian Armed Forces afraid to surrender.
Reaction of foreign politicians and institutions
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission responded to the shocking video of the castration and murder of a Ukrainian prisoner by the Russian military, which was released on July 29, 2022.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine is shocked by recent videos that clearly show the beating, castration and murder of a captured Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier by a man who is allegedly a member of the Russian Federation Armed Forces or affiliated armed groups. One of the videos shows the tortured soldier being shot in the head and his body being dragged into a ditch, – the statement said.
The UN called on “all sides” to refrain from torture, murder and threats to spare captured combatants.
Those who commit war crimes must be brought to justice and sentenced by a competent court, – the Mission emphasised.
Paul Massaro, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Helsinki Commission, responded to the same horrific case of torture, calling the torture by Russians “an unmitigated evil”. He called for Ukraine to be provided with all the necessary weapons to put an end to Russian crimes.
The international community was also shocked by the video of a Ukrainian prisoner who was shot after saying “Glory to Ukraine”.
Paul Massaro posted a photo of our soldier on his X page and wrote his last words, “Glory to Ukraine!”.
I hope that every Russian will see this Ukrainian hero, unconquered even in the face of death, and realise that they will never conquer this land, – he emphasised.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, shared the post of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine about the killing of our soldiers by Russians and briefly signed it: “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!”.
Now, the international community is so accustomed to Russia’s cruelty that it does not react to the executions of Ukrainian soldiers.
Statistics on executions of Ukrainian military: the growing number of Russian war crimes
Over the past year, the number of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war has increased. This was reported by the head of the War Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Yuriy Belousov. Conditions in the detention centres in Russia where Ukrainian prisoners are held have also deteriorated significantly.
It is worth noting that the Ministry of Defense has found that at least 177 Ukrainian military and civilians have been killed in Russian captivity since the start of the full-scale invasion.
This statistic was reported by Victoria Tsymbalyuk, a representative of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in a commentary to Politico. According to her, due to the lack of international control, the real number of deaths in Russian captivity is likely to be much higher.
This is the number we have. But, of course, not all the bodies have been returned, and Russia has not even confirmed that many of them were held in captivity, – emphasised Tsymbalyuk.
Despite the horrific war crimes, Ukraine continues to work to collect evidence and ensure that the perpetrators are punished. All documented crimes will be submitted to international courts, and Ukraine will continue to demand justice for its fallen heroes. At the same time, The Ukrainian Review will continue to cover Russian war crimes and will write a series of articles on the executions of Ukrainian soldiers.
Kateryna Yashchuk
