War in Ukraine: Kyiv is investigating the alleged execution of eight prisoners of war by the Russian army

The charge is serious. Ukrainian prosecutors announced on Sunday that they had opened an investigation into the alleged execution by Russian soldiers of eight prisoners of war in eastern Ukraine, specifically near Avdiivka, the day after Kyiv’s troops withdrew from that city. “The shooting of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Avdiivka and Vessel: an investigation has been launched,” the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported on Telegram.

Earlier in the day, the DeepState Telegram channel, close to the Ukrainian army, said the Russian army had shot six Ukrainian soldiers, including four wounded, surrounded at a position south of Avdiivka, likely on Thursday, before the full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops. from this industrial city.

Shot at point blank range

“The armed forces are checking the circumstances of the death of a group of Ukrainian soldiers captured while leaving Zenit positions on the southern outskirts of Avdiivka,” press secretary Dmitry Likhovoy responded on television on Sunday evening. region. The Ukrainian army reported the day before that the soldiers were captured during the withdrawal from Avdiivka, without specifying details.

Ukrainian ground forces, for their part, on Sunday accused Russian soldiers of shooting two prisoners of war in another area of ​​eastern Ukraine. On Sunday morning, “the Russians once again demonstrated their attitude towards international humanitarian law by shooting two Ukrainian prisoners of war,” they said on Telegram.

They broadcast a short black-and-white video shot from a drone, in which we see a soldier shooting point-blank at two soldiers who are in the same trench with him and are not offering any resistance. According to Ukrainian prosecutors, the incident occurred near the village of Vessel, northeast of Bakhmut, a city captured by Russia in May 2023 after months of heavy fighting.

The two warring sides have repeatedly accused each other of killing prisoners of war since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In March 2023, a video appeared showing a captured Ukrainian soldier executed after the words “Glory to Ukraine!” “, went viral. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recalled at the time that it had “documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law regarding prisoners of war, including cases of summary executions of prisoners of war in Russia and Ukraine.