““An investigation has been launched into the fact of violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“The killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and an international crime. An investigation has been launched into a violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder. We are doing everything to identify and punish all the perpetrators of the crimes committed by the aggressor country against Ukraine and Ukrainians,” Kostin wrote on the X social network.
Earlier today, the Ukrainian analytical project Deepstate reported that the Russian military in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation shot dead nine Ukrainians who surrendered. According to analysts, it happened on October 10 near the village of Zeleny Shlyah. Ukrainian soldiers reportedly surrendered after running out of ammunition.
The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, called the actions of the Russian military a gross violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. He appealed to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to investigate what happened.
“Russia is a terrorist country that violates all the rules and customs of war. The international community should not turn a blind eye to such crimes,” Lubinets wrote in a telegram.
According to international humanitarian law, the shooting of surrendering soldiers is a war crime.
The Russian side did not comment on the news about the execution of the prisoners.
Reports of murders, torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war are regularly reported. On October 2, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office began an investigation into the killing of 16 Ukrainian prisoners by Russian soldiers in the Donetsk region.
In general, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have information about the killing of at least 93 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers, Yurii Belousov, head of the Department for Combating Crimes Committed in Armed Conflict, reported on October 4.
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.”