Ukraine accused Russia of committing a “war crime” by executing Ukrainian soldiers who had expressed their intention to surrender, after images whose authenticity has not been verified were published on social media.
“Russia has once again violated the laws and customs of war, as well as the norms of international law,” the Ukrainian army’s strategic communications center charged on Saturday, referring to an “execution video.”
The AFP agency refers to a video published on the social network Telegram that shows two men leaving a shelter, one of them with his hands on his head, before lying on the ground in front of another group of soldiers.
What appears to be gunshots and smoke appear before the video stops.
The undated footage was presented on social media as being filmed near Avdiïvka, a town in eastern Ukraine where soldiers were fighting, however the news agency was unable to confirm the location and authenticity of the footage.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Loubinets called this act a “war crime.”
“Today a video of the execution, by Russian soldiers, of Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered, was published on the Internet,” he wrote on the Telegram social network.
The speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ruslan Stefantchuk, also denounced today a “new crime” committed by the Russian army.
In March, another video appearing to show a captured Ukrainian soldier being shot dead after shouting “glory to Ukraine” went viral.
At the time, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recalled that he had “documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law against prisoners of war, including cases of summary executions of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war.”
Source: TSF
