By Current Time, RFE/RL's Russian Service and RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service
Ukraine's Prosecutor-General’s Office has initiated an investigation into what it describes as the "largest mass execution" of Ukrainian "prisoners of war" by Russian troops since the start of Moscow's full-scale invasion more than 31 months ago.
According to an official statement published on the office’s Telegram channel, Russian forces allegedly killed 16 Ukrainian "prisoners of war" near the villages of Mykolayivka and Sukhiy Yar in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region.
Videos circulated on various Telegram channels appear to show Ukrainian soldiers, freshly captured by Russian troops, emerging from a forested area.
After the prisoners have lined up, Russian forces appear to opened fire. The videos then appear to show Russian soldiers approaching those who were only wounded and shooting them again at close range with machine guns.
The videos have not been independently verified.
Under international humanitarian law, executing soldiers who have surrendered is considered a war crime.
"This is the largest reported case of the execution of Ukrainian POWs on the front line and yet another indication that the killing and torture of prisoners of war are not isolated incidents," Ukraine's Prosecutor-General Andriy Kostin said on X.
Just received information about a new heinous crime committed by Russia against Ukrainian prisoners of war. In the Pokrovsk sector, the occupying forces allegedly shot dead sixteen surrendering Ukrainians. An investigation has been initiated into this flagrant violation of the… pic.twitter.com/Qc324KbLjH
— Andriy Kostin (@AndriyKostinUa) October 1, 2024
"This is a deliberate policy of the Russian military and political leadership."
Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said he had contacted both the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross over the deaths, citing violations of the Geneva Conventions, which govern the treatment of prisoners of war.
The incident is not the first time such allegations against Russian soldiers have surfaced.
In September, CNN released two videos purportedly showing Russian military personnel executing Ukrainian soldiers as they were surrendering.
The footage, filmed by drones and provided by Ukrainian military intelligence, included audio transcripts that seemingly captured the order to execute the soldiers.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General's Office informed CNN then that it was currently investigating at least 28 cases involving the murder of Ukrainian prisoners of war since Russia launched its full-scale aggression against its neighbor in February 2022.
Russia has yet to respond to the accusations.
Earlier in August, Danielle Bell, the head of mission for the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said that 95 percent of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russia face torture.
