Invaders gun down more unarmed Ukrainian POWs as proof mounts that such war crimes are Russian state policy

Ukraine’s prosecutor has initiated a new probe over the apparent killing in cold blood of four Ukrainian prisoners of war. Since the four Ukrainian defenders had surrendered, and therefore had protected status under international law, the criminal investigation, under the procedural control of the Donetsk regional prosecutor, is under Article 438 § 2 (a war crime involving homicide).

On 22 December, information was reported on a Telegram channel about the killing of four Ukrainian POWs.  Retreating from the invading army, the four men had come under artillery fire and hidden in a private building in Volnovakha raion (Donetsk oblast).  Since they were surrendered by the invaders, the men became coming out one by one from the building.  All four men were taken prisoner, however the Russians left two of them lying on the ground, while taking the other two out on to the road.  All four defenders were then shot dead, in flagrant violation of the Third Geneva Convention and other documents of international law.  These expressly prohibit the killing of soldiers who have clearly surrendered, in this case, or indicated an internation to surrender and who are, therefore, hors do combat. 

More and more such executions

According to Yury Bielousov, head of the War Crimes Department within the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Russian invaders have killed at least 147 Ukrainian prisoners of war, with 127 of the victims in this year alone.  “Executions became systematic from November last year and have continued throughout this year. Unfortunately, the number rose particularly sharply in summer and autumn.  This indicates that these are not isolated cases.  They take place on a considerable amount of territory and there are clear signs that these are part of the Kremlin’s policy.  There is proof also that the relevant instructions have been issued.”

On 18 November 2024, Ukraine’s Military Intelligence [HUR] reported an intercepted call in which a Russian military commander essentially ordered his subordinates to kill a prisoner of war.  This is not the first such order from military command which Ukraine has intercepted, and HUR called it “the latest proof of the deliberate genocidal policy of the occupying army in the criminal war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine.”

It is unclear whether the above figure includes over 50 prisoners of war killed as the result of an explosion at the Olenivka prison in Russian-occupied Donetsk oblast during the night from 28-29 July 2022.  At least 45 men are believed to have been killed outright, with nine others dying because the prison staff failed to provide any medical care.   There is considerable witness and other evidence to suggest that this was a deliberate act of mass murder, and Ukrainian human rights organizations recently made a submission to the International Criminal Court at the Hague asking that it initiate a proper investigation.

Russia may be imprisoning its own citizens for truthful reporting on its war crimes in Ukraine and blocking access to international monitors, but it cannot stop the truth emerging about its atrocities.  In its monitoring report for March 2024, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights [OHCHR] confirmed that the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission had recorded at least 32 summary executions by the Russians of Ukrainian prisoners of war.  That figure, it should be stressed, referred solely to those that they had been able to independently verify.

These are not the only crimes that Russia is committing against Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian hostages.  At the beginning of October, OHCHR published a Report on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and Update on the Human Rights Situation in Ukraine during the period from 1 June to 31 August 2024.  

In presenting the report, Danielle Bell, Head of the UN Monitoring Mission, spoke of the “widespread and systematic torture” to which Russian authorities had subjected Ukrainian POWs.  The monitors had interviewed 174 former POWs, including five medics who had provided “credible and reliable details of torture and severe ill-treatment” including “severe beatings, electric shocks, suffocation, tasering, prolonged stress positions, sleep deprivation, dog bites, mock executions, sensory deprivation, threats, degrading treatment, and humiliation, 68% had reported sexual violence,” 

The Mission had documented the deaths of ten Ukrainian POWs due to torture, poor conditions, or inadequate medical care”.

The report noted that “the widespread use of torture and ill-treatment makes it highly unlikely that superiors and the administration of internment facilities were not aware of how Ukrainian POWs were treated. Many of the documented instances of torture or ill-treatment involved different State entities, suggesting significant levels of coordination between these entities and widespread knowledge of the use of torture, <> In some cases, interviewees overheard orders by supervisors to torture POWs, or experienced incidents of torture happening in front of supervisors or internal video cameras.”

All of this is continuing while Russia also stages fake ‘trials’ of Ukrainian prisoners of war, accusing them essentially of its own war crimes against the civilian population or, insanely, of ‘terrorism’ for fighting in regiments or battalions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

See, for example, Russia churns out surreal ‘terrorism’ sentences against Ukrainian POWs for defending Ukraine