Ukraine investigates war crimes in Donetsk amid new footage
The General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine has initiated a criminal case concerning the execution of six Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Donetsk region. This crime was initially reported by the Ukrainian Parliament's Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets.
A video recording capturing the moment of the execution is being circulated on the internet. Lubinets emphasised that in the recording, Russian soldiers "personally document their crime."
"This one is mine." They died in front of their comrades
- The video shows each of the prisoners being killed in front of their fellow soldiers. Russian soldiers order them to "lie down and be silent," while one of them, recording the entire incident, utters the phrase "this one is mine" and fires a series of shots into the back of one of the prisoners of war - Lubinets detailed.
This case is not the only crime committed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. In early January, near the settlement of Neskuchne in the Volnovakha district of the Donetsk region, three Ukrainian prisoners of war were shot. After surrendering, their hands were tied, and they were killed with shots to the back of the head.
In October 2024, the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine began an investigation into the largest mass execution of prisoners of war at the front line. According to data from the prosecutor's office, Russian soldiers executed 16 surrendering soldiers in the area of the villages of Mykolayivka and Suchyi Yar in the Pokrovsk district of the Donetsk region.
According to the report from the United Nations Monitoring Mission on Human Rights in Ukraine, there has been a sharp increase in confirmed cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war in recent months. According to the mission's data, from August to the end of December last year, there were at least 62 victims in 19 incidents.
