Lubinets: Russian troops probably shot five Ukrainian prisoners of war

The Russian military probably shot five Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered. The corresponding video was distributed on December 22 in the unmanned systems battalion of the 110th separate mechanized brigade named after Mark Bezruchka.

“The video shows how Russian soldiers shot five captured Ukrainian defenders. I will report this fact to the UN and the ICRC,” Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada’s human rights commissioner, wrote in a telegram.

Earlier, Lubinets reported that there are 177 confirmed cases of execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian military since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

Read also: The forces of the Russian Federation shot an apparently wounded, unarmed Ukrainian soldier – Lubinets

On October 15, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin called the killing of Ukrainian servicemen in captivity a purposeful policy of the Russian Federation.

Reports of murders, torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war are regularly reported. In general, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have information about the murder of at least 93 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers, reported on October 4, the representative of the OGP, Yuriy Belousov.

According to him, 80% of cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war were recorded in 2024, but the trend began to appear in November 2023, when “changes took place in the attitude of Russian servicemen towards our prisoners of war for the worse.”

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says it has observed an increase in the number of executions by the Russian military of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and points out that Russian commanders are likely “tolerating, encouraging or directly ordering” the executions.