Condemnation from Ukraine has widened in recent days, after new reports emerged of sudden executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russia. “Russia is a terrorist state that violates all the rules of war,” Dmytro Loebinets, the human rights ombudsman on behalf of the Ukrainian parliament, said plainly.
The immediate cause was an image (which has not been independently verified) of nine lifeless Ukrainian soldiers, wearing only their underwear and facing the ground, which was distributed by the Ukrainian Telegram channel DeepState this weekend. The soldiers were said to have been executed in Kursk after they surrendered to Russia, DeepState reported based on sources within the armed forces.
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Thom Canters is a news reporter from de Volkskrant.
For Ukraine, the deaths of the nine soldiers are not an isolated incident. Since the start of the war, Kyiv has repeatedly leveled accusations of execution without any trial, which is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. But according to Ukrainian authorities, Russia is guilty of this on an increasingly large scale.
Encouraged
Ukraine’s chief war crimes prosecutor, Yuri Belusov, said earlier this month that Russia had executed at least 93 Ukrainian prisoners of war since the start of the war. 80 percent of cases are said to have occurred in the past year.
Kyiv is not the only one to condemn Russia’s increasing number of executions. The authoritative American think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) recently stated that it has seen an ‘increase’ in executions of Russians scattered across the war zone. According to ISW, Russian commanders may have approved, encouraged, or directly ordered this.
ISW also reported the execution of nine Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk. It concerns soldiers piloting a drone near the Russian village of Zeleny Shilach, near the front line in Kursk. When they unexpectedly encountered Russian soldiers, they surrendered. According to ISW, their exposed bodies indicated a ‘plan’.
Bloggers
Russian military bloggers praised such executions, according to ISW research. These bloggers often have large followings, including among Russian soldiers on the front line, and their influence reaches as far as the Kremlin. “This glorification underscores a broader culture that likely contributed to the systematic execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war,” ISW said.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also reached a similar conclusion earlier this month after conducting an investigation. Calls for executions by top Russian officials such as former President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, will contribute to a ‘climate of impunity’.
It is not clear what is behind this increase in the number of executions, or what Russia hopes to achieve with this. However, the OHCHR stated that the executions were part of a pattern of ‘widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment’ carried out by Russia.
Mock execution
UN observers have spoken to 174 Ukrainian prisoners of war since March last year, most of whom gave “credible” accounts of the torture and other ill-treatment they endured.
For example, prisoners are depicted as victims of sexual violence, electric shocks, and mock executions. At least managers are aware of this. Ukraine says at least 177 Ukrainians have died in Russian captivity since the war began.
According to OHCHR, Ukraine itself is no exception in this regard. About half of the 205 Russian prisoners of war spoken to by UN observers for the same report said they faced similar forms of violence at the start of their captivity. The big difference with Russia is that Ukraine allows international observers access to its prisons, said Danielle Bell, head of the UN human rights mission in Ukraine.
The tallest in the tree
Ukraine has vowed to prosecute Russian citizens who commit human rights violations. Earlier this month, Ukraine’s public prosecutor, Andry Kostin, began an investigation into the execution of sixteen Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines around the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which Russia has targeted in recent months.
According to Kostin, this was ‘the largest reported case of execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war at the front’ to date. An investigation into the alleged execution in Kursk is also underway.
In both cases, Kostin said Ukraine would hold perpetrators accountable, “from the soldiers who carried out the acts to those who ordered them.” It remains to be seen whether the authorities are able to do this. The International Criminal Court in The Hague generally focuses on the highest levels. Although Ukraine has jurisdiction to try Russian war crimes perpetrators, this must be done in-abstia. Russia does not extradite its own citizens.
