Ukraine accuses executed Russian POWs of ‘treachery’ — RT Russia and the former Soviet Union
Kyiv prosecutors insist Russian POWs executed by Ukrainian troops only imitated surrender
Ukraine’s attorney general has provided an explanation for graphic videos that have been circulating on social media since last week that show the apparent execution of unarmed Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian military personnel. According to kyiv, Russian soldiers committed “perfidy” and only imitated a surrender, and therefore their murder was justified.
Ukrainian authorities have launched an investigation into alleged perfidy, meaning being misleading, prosecutors said on Tuesday, blaming the gruesome incident solely on the dead Russian soldiers.
“According to the results of mass media monitoring, it became known that in the village of Makeevka, Luhansk region, the Russian army, imitating a surrender to the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, opened fire on the Ukrainian defenders. Such actions are prohibited by international humanitarian law,” the prosecutor’s statement said.
Graphic videos of POW killings surfaced last week, with Russia’s Defense Ministry accusing Ukrainian forces of committing a new war crime, also claiming the killing of unarmed and surrendered soldiers was a “widespread practice” for the kyiv troops. Moscow has also pledged to do everything possible to bring the Ukrainian perpetrators of the massacre to justice.
“Russia will do everything possible within the framework of international mechanisms to draw attention to this crime and hold accountable, under the law, those involved in it,” he added. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
Video of the incident appears to show unarmed Russian servicemen surrendering to Ukrainian troops and lying in a row on the ground. Another, captured by a drone, showed the same scene, with soldiers lying in the same positions, apparently dead from gunshot wounds to the head.
Another clip of the incident, which did not include audio and was the one that apparently allowed kyiv prosecutors to charge the massacred POWs with “perfidy,” presumably showed a Russian soldier coming out of a building and shooting at the Ukrainians, while the surrendered personnel were already lying on the ground.
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