The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine on Monday expressed concern over a sharp increase in reported executions of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces, calling for investigations into alleged war crimes.
Since late August 2024, the Mission has documented 79 executions across 24 separate incidents.
Many Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered or were in Russian custody were “shot dead on the spot,” while others were executed despite being unarmed or injured, the Mission reported.
“These incidents did not occur in a vacuum. Public figures in the Russian Federation have explicitly called for inhumane treatment, and even execution, of captured Ukrainian military personnel,” said Danielle Bell, Head of the Mission.
“Combined with broad amnesty laws, such statements have the potential to incite or encourage unlawful behavior,” Bell said.
Russian officials urged executions
The Mission’s findings, based on video and photographic evidence as well as witness testimonies, indicate that these executions took place in areas of active Russian military operations.
The Washington Post previously reported that Ukrainian officials said one of the worst instances of executions of POWs took place near the eastern town of Pokrovsk on September 30. They alleged that 16 Ukrainian soldiers were shot just after they had surrendered.
Three instances of Russian public officials calling for such actions and multiple social media posts by military-linked groups approving executions were recorded by the Mission.
It also documented the execution of a wounded Russian soldier by Ukrainian forces in 2024.
Bell stressed that all such allegations must be investigated, stating: “Military commanders and superiors should also provide clear and unequivocal orders to protect and treat humanely all captured military personnel and persons hors de combat.”
In December, the BBC reported that the Ukrainian prosecution service estimated at least 147 Ukrainian POWs had been executed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, 127 of them in 2024.
