Russia on Friday accused Ukraine of “brutally” executing more than 10 of its soldiers who had laid down their arms, calling it a “war crime.”
“No one will be able to present the deliberate and methodical murder of more than 10 Russian soldiers who were immobilized (…), with direct shots to the head, as a ‘tragic exception’,” the Russian Defense Ministry stated.
This accusation follows the publication on social networks of two videos of about thirty seconds each, presented as showing the execution of Russian soldiers who had just surrendered to Ukrainian forces.
Videos yet to be authenticated
In the first video, made with a mobile phone, we see a group of men in military uniform leaving a house with their hands up, then lying face down on the ground of a rubble-strewn garden, while soldiers with yellow armbands They point their guns at them. A burst of shots rings out and the video cuts out. The second video, taken from a height, possibly with a drone, shows a dozen bodies lying in pools of blood. One of them appears to have a wound on his face.
The presence in both videos of a wheelbarrow and a red children’s car in the garden seems to indicate that it is the same place. However, it was not immediately possible to know where, when, by whom and under what circumstances these images were taken.
Neither the first nor the last Ukrainian “war crime” according to the Russians
The Kremlin Human Rights Council, an advisory body attached to the Russian presidency, said the alleged executions were carried out in Makiivka, a city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. “We are going to ask for a reaction from the international community and an investigation,” said the head of this body, Valery Fadeyev.
For the Russian Defense Ministry, these videos are “evidence of the massacre” committed, according to him, “by Ukrainian soldiers against unarmed Russian prisoners of war.” “This brutal murder of Russian prisoners of war is not the first and not the first war crime committed,” he continued, saying that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “will hold accountable for all tortured and murdered prisoners.”
mutual accusations
Since the launch of the Russian offensive against Ukraine in late February, the two camps have repeatedly accused each other of mistreating prisoners of war. In a report released Tuesday, the UN said many prisoners of war captured by both sides were subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
The UN also said it had received “credible allegations” of summary executions of Russian prisoners of war captured by Ukrainian forces and several cases of torture and ill-treatment.
Source: BFM TV
