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war crimes in Ukraine

The Tribunal for Putin (T4P) global initiative was set up in response to the all-out war launched by Russia against Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine initiates war crimes probe over gunning down by Russians of two Ukrainian prisoners of war

12.07.2024   
Halya Coynash
As with Russia’s atrocities in Bucha, it is likely that the videos showing horrific war crimes against Ukrainian prisoners of war are part of Russia’s ‘military strategy’ against Ukraine
The drone foootage from the middle of June showing two Ukrainian defenders gunned down
The drone foootage from the middle of June showing two Ukrainian defenders gunned down

Another video has come to light which appears to show Russian fighters killing two Ukrainian defenders who had surrendered and were unarmed.  If the drone footage proves authentic, this will be the latest of a rapidly increasing number of Russian atrocities committed against prisoners of war who have protected status under international law.  The increase both in frequency and savagery makes it likely that such attacks are, at least, condoned by Russia’s leadership, if not deliberate policy. 

The new footage was first posted on 10 July, with Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin announcing shortly afterwards that criminal proceedings had been initiated under Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code (violation of the rules and practice of war).  He pointed out that the video footage clearly shows that the two Ukrainian soldiers had laid down their weapons and were not showing any resistance. Such killing in cold blood of unarmed prisoners of war is in violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and is, Kostin stresses, considered a grave international crime. 

The Ukrainian defenders are believed to have been killed in June 2024 near Robotyne (Zaporizhzhia oblast).  In first posting the video, Ukrainian civic activist Serhiy Sternenko reported that “according to preliminary information”, the crime was committed by men from Russia’s 70th Motor Rifle Regiment. 

That information, however, was not in the Prosecutor General’s report and may simply be based on the fact that this regiment is deployed near Rabotyne and was recently named in connection with the earlier gunning down of four unarmed Ukrainian defenders. 

As reported, Ukraine’s Military Intelligence [HUR] posted the drone footage showing the killing of the four defenders on 19 June.  It stated then, however, that the men had been killed in the middle of May 2024, near Robotyne by members of an assault unit of the 70th Motor Rifle Regiment, under the command of Yury Mairbekovich Abayev (nom de guerre ‘Bison’, b. 10.12.1990).  HUR named four other men suspected of involvement in that crime: Captain Dmitry Olegovich Nagorny (b. 21.11.1995), commander of the second battalion; senior lieutenant Temirlan Umarovich Abutalimov (b. 02.05.1997), the commander of the first assault unit; lieutenant Zaur Sergeevich Bekov (b. 16.07.1997), commander of the third assault unit; and senior lieutenant Yusup Paizulaevich Imagazaliev (b. 18.07.1999), commander of the sixth assault unit.

HUR suggested then that these men could be guilty of other such war crimes as they had intercepted conversations showing that at least one Russian military commander had ordered his subordinates to kill Ukrainian defenders, rather than taking them prisoner.

In its monitoring report for the period from December 2023 to March 2024, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that its monitors had “recorded 12 cases of executions of at least 32 captured Ukrainian POWs.

Yury Bielousov, Head of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Department on countering crimes committed during the armed conflict, reported in February 2024 that there had been a dramatic increase in the number of killings of Ukrainian prisoners of war.  Both the increase and the fact that such killings had been recorded in very different areas led him to believe that this is Russian policy supported by the top echelons of Russia’s armed forces.  The publication of videos showing Ukrainian defenders being shot dead or beheaded, or, as recently, a decapitated head on a Ukrainian armoured vehicle is intended to demoralize Ukrainian soldiers, to weaken their resistance and to generally make it easier to subjugate Ukraine. 

See also:  Ukrainian POW wounded, but survives after the Russians gun down four of his comrades after they surrendered

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