The killings, illegal under Geneva Convention, could be a new state policy, one Ukraine official suggests
Liz Cookman06 October 2024 8:37pm BST
Executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Vladimir Putin’s forces have surged this year, with a top Kyiv official warning it could indicate a shift in Russian policy.
Some 80 per cent of the 93 prisoner executions recorded since the start of the war took place this year, Yuriy Belousov, the head of the prosecutor-general’s office, revealed on local TV.
Gruesome videos and photos that appear to show the killings are often circulated by war bloggers and Telegram accounts, becoming vital evidence for Ukraine’s investigations.
In a video circulated last week, a shirtless man kneels in a grave while being pushed around by a figure wearing a Russian military uniform with Wagner PMC patches.
A knife is pointed at his throat and he is forced to say: “Thank you, Uncle Zhenya Prigozhin, for raising such guys.” Prigozhin was the head of Russia’s infamous state-funded private military company Wagner, who died in a plane crash last year.
A second clip appears to show the back of the same man, shirtless and in army-green shorts, in a field. The person filming declares the man is “sentenced to death” in the name of the Russian Federation, before two people open fire.
The Telegraph has not been able to independently verify the videos but Ukrainian authorities said they were investigating.
Last week, the prosecutor-general’s office announced it had opened an investigation into the “largest mass execution” since the start of the war, after 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in Donetsk.
Unverified videos appear to show captured Ukrainian soldiers emerging from a forested area and lining up, before Russian forces open fire. Russian soldiers then approach the wounded and shoot them again at close range.
‘Not isolated incidents’
Mr Belousov previously said it was hard to view the killings as isolated incidents because they had been carried out by different units and in different regions.
Instead, he claimed the rise suggested a “change at the policy level, maybe in the instructions the Russian military is receiving”. It could indicate the killings are “part of Russian policy”, he added.
The execution of prisoners of war is illegal under the Geneva Convention, which regulates the conduct of armed conflicts, with both parties obliged to treat captives humanely.
In September, Ukraine appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations after a photo emerged allegedly showing a prisoner of war who had been executed with a sword by Russian forces.
In the photo, the bloodied body of a Ukrainian soldier lies on the floor with a sword sticking out of his abdomen. The words “for Kursk” are written on the blade.
‘Systematic torture’
The killings highlight the grim reality for Ukrainians in Russian captivity, as the United Nations warned of the “widespread and systematic torture” of prisoners of war.
A report released last week by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights detailed the ill-treatment of hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war, and said there were indications detention facility supervisors were aware of the treatment and had the ability to prevent it.
Some public figures in Russia have “explicitly encouraged inhumane treatment, and even killing, of Ukrainian prisoners of war”, the report added.
Ukraine’s defence ministry said last week that at least 177 Ukrainian prisoners have died in Russian captivity, with thousands of others at risk.
Due to a lack of international oversight and access to Russian detention facilities the real figure could be far higher.
In 2022, an explosion ripped through the Russian-controlled Olenivka prison barracks and killed at least 50 prisoners, many of them from Ukraine’s Azov Regiment.
Regular prison swaps between the two sides have seen the return of more than 3,600 Ukrainian prisoners of war and deported citizens, however thousands are still believed to be in Russian hands.
The Kremlin denies that its forces commit war crimes in Ukraine.
Ukraine has recorded executions in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
Every world leader with a scintilla of integrity needs to be reminded: The RuZZian Federation of Nazis is and has been continually practicing a planned, systematic policy of genocide against Ukrainians. The policy is driven by the fact that ruZZians hate Ukrainians with a fervour and intensity that is indescribable. The reasons for this hatred are many :
1/ a sick sense of superiority
2/ a feeling of total impunity
3/ an obsessive love for their tiny but poisonous Nazi dictator.
4/ a complete inability to understand why others; including of course Ukrainians, do not love their sick little fuhrer.
All totalitarian regimes build a cult of personality around their dictator; it’s a key feature of naziism; which is actually just a variant of communism.
All totalitarian regimes use extreme propaganda to brainwash their “subjects.” All totalitarian regimes invest vast amounts to spread fake news, absurd conspiracies and hateful lies around the world. Democratic countries have been very slow to resist this.
Democratic countries have been allowing kremlin assets to hide in plain sight since the time of Lenin. Historically, there were very successful communist academics such as Eric Hobsbawm and Noam Chomsky in the UK and US respectively. The latter incredibly is still alive and puking out putlerist propaganda at the age of 95.
Again historically there were communist-loving journalists such as Walter Duranty on the NYT; a paper that still employs Duranty types, hence the satirical nickname; The New Orc Times.
Nowadays the key putler assets are more likely to be on the far right. But on the far left, putler asset JeremIRA CorbLenin twice led the Labour Party in elections; being defeated narrowly by Teresa May before getting crushed thankfully by Boris. Also on the far left; tankie side is the foul scum Robert Fico.
On the far right, the aptly named; by OFP “Orbanus” is hero-worshipped by Trumpkov almost as much as the number one object of his affections; fuhrer putler.
If Candace Owens, Joe Rogan, Alex Jones, Fucker Karlsonov, Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Scott Ritter, Douglas Macgregor, Ivan Muskovy etc aren’t ruZZian agents, I’m a Chinaman. Rand Paul long ago was outed by John McCain and even he’s still in business.
Nothing is being done about the appalling impunity of kremlin assets in the west.
If Ukraine was to start executing orcs, the howls of anguish from tankies, magaputler shitheads, pali-lovers and assorted other crap, would be deafening.
But putler does it and no one gives a shit. A monstrous nazi like putler can still do whatever he wants: murdering children; to gleeful shrieks from his fans, raping, dismembering and torturing women, girls, boys and men. The defenders even found putinaZi torture rooms exclusively for torturing children in Kherson oblast.
The above horrors are all officially sanctioned and indeed encouraged by the putinaZi regime and its militarized propaganda regime headed by the sulfurous nazi Margarita Simonyan.
Clearly, the free world is sound asleep with these atrocities. It’s more important to report on the daily stock markets and weather forecasts.
When will the Ukrainians start executing roaches? If so, how loud would the outcry be?
Selected comments from DT readers :
Richard Kennedy
Please stop calling these “executions”. That term gives what is happening a sense of legal legitimacy. It implies that a court has decided that these people were guilty of something and their killing was in some way justifiable.
They were murdered. Plain and simple. They had surrendered. They offered no resistance. They were simply shot, out of hand by a terrorist state run by a despot.
Jane Gascoigne
Poor Ukraine! Putin – barbarism, uncivilised, cowardice, cynicism. It’s hard to find words bad enough to describe him. Their support for this man reflects equally badly on the Russian people.
Mike Kalk
Russia was always a barbaric country.
Gwyn Davies
So in order to deter such action Ukraine needs to respond in kind. Forget the moral high ground. When dealing with rabid animals, you shoot them.
Alec McQueen
Can we please stop engaging with Russia or Russians in *all* walks of life. They really need to be ostracised.
London Born
And as India buys Russian oil at a discount and helps hold them up, we still do business with India…….scandalous!
Vicki Lester
These murders in breach of the Geneva Convention are just the ones they know about.
Simon Reeve Reply to Vicki Lester Is there a treaty or promise (or “deal” as Trump calls them) that Russia has made that Vladolf Putler hasn’t dropped a steaming one on at this point? https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/3503924-president-zelensky-russia-violated-about-400-international-treaties-since-2014.html John Bolwell
And there are some who think Ukraine should negotiate with Putin.
The West’s policy on Ukraine has been a colossal failure that has left the world a far more dangerous place.
Heaven help us!
Star comment from the always excellent Carpe Jugulum :
And? Putin’s army is a tide of murdering filth sent into Ukraine to steal it’s natural resources, a purely criminal enterprise birthed by an entirely criminal state and a profoundly sick society.
How else do you explain a national Russian TV presenter suggesting Ukrainian children should be drowned ‘in fast flowing rivers’?
The atrocity of Bucha? An entire catalogue of war crimes? Or, most tellingly, Russian ‘soldiers’ filming murders and posting them in expectation of accolades?
These atrocities are no surprise whatsoever.
It really is time Russia was isolated totally. They have nothing to contribute to a civilised world.
As to negotiating with them? Really?
Surprisingly no comments from z-tards.
Only because I hand-picked the ones I liked. Unfortunately articles like these are always swamped with pro and amateur kremtrolls.
Newsweak is no different.
I fully agree with Richard Kennedy. They were murdered. Plain and simple. Fucking press always getting things wrong!
Of course, I also agree with all the other commentators. Vicki Lester has a good point, one we also mentioned many times; our pathetic weakness has left this planet a more dangerous place.
Nuclear blackmailing and wars are taking the place of mutually respected agreements and world order.