UN confirms 6 cases of extrajudicial executions of Ukrainian POWs by Russia

This is reported by Interfax-Ukraine, with citing the organization's report.

The document covers the period from February 1 to July 31, 2023.

Among the cases documented in the report are those already known from videos posted online on March 6 and April 11, 2023. In the first video, the Russian military shot and killed a Ukrainian prisoner of war after he said: "Glory to Ukraine".

In the second, a Russian soldier beheaded a Ukrainian soldier. The UN says it has reasonable grounds to believe that both videos are authentic.

In addition, the report cites cases when in September 2022, a Russian soldier shot and killed a Ukrainian prisoner of war who had a wounded leg after stepping on a mine - the Russian troops forced him to perform dangerous work near a frontline position.

Another Ukrainian prisoner of war was shot dead when he refused to do such work. Both POWs were in the Donetsk region in August 2022. For three months, they were forced by the Russian military to carry heavy ammunition to and from Russian forward positions. The prisoners of war told the UN that at least five of them were injured while doing this work.

Also, after the capture of the village of Sloboda in the Chernihiv region on March 9, 2022, the invading Russian forces captured two Ukrainian servicemen who were hiding in a civilian building. On March 31, 2022, their bodies were found with gunshot wounds.

Of the 56 Ukrainian servicemen interviewed by OHCHR, 51 reported having been subjected to various forms of torture and ill-treatment.

The organization also says that the Russian authorities in the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in Russia, have convicted 37 Ukrainian prisoners of war on various criminal charges, including terrorism.

The report and its findings are based on data collected during field missions, visits to places of detention, and remote monitoring of the occupied territory. Its conclusions are based on 1,226 interviews with victims, witnesses, survivors, their relatives, lawyers, government officials, civil society and other interlocutors.

• The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has called on UN member states to demand that the Russian authorities grant independent observers access to all places of detention and internment.
• The UN also denied the Russian fake about Ukraine's attack on Olenivka.