The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission has recorded an “alarming rise” in reported executions of Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russian armed forces during the war in recent months.
The mission in Ukraine said it had received reports of 79 executions in 24 separate incidents since the end of August last year. International humanitarian law prohibits the execution of prisoners of war and the wounded, regarding it as a war crime.
“Many Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered or were in physical custody of the Russian armed forces were shot dead on the spot. Witness accounts also described the killings of unarmed and injured Ukrainian soldiers,” the mission said in a statement.
Commenting on the report, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the Russian atrocities demanded urgent international action. The UN body obtained and analyzed video and photographic material published by Ukrainian and Russian sources showing executions or dead bodies and conducted detailed interviews with witnesses.
It said the reported executions took place in areas where Russian offensive operations were underway. Danielle Bell, head of the mission, said some Russian officials “have explicitly called for inhumane treatment, and even execution” of captured Ukrainian soldiers.
Read more here.
