The video has the robotic grain of infrared images. Filmed at night by a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone and broadcast on October 1 on Telegram, it shows around ten people in uniform lying side by side on the edge of a wood, surrounded by soldiers. The black and white image does not make it possible to distinguish which side they belong to, but the flash of the rifles opening fire and the dust raised by the impact of the bullets on the ground leave little doubt as to the nature of the scene. For kyiv, it shows the cold execution of sixteen Ukrainian soldiers captured on the Pokrovsk front.
For several months now, Ukraine has denounced a worrying increase in the number of executions of its soldiers taken prisoner by the Russian army. “We are currently investigating 147 soldiers executed on the battlefield, but it should be noted that 87% of executions took place this year», explains to The Cross Yuriy Belousov, head of the war crimes department of the Ukrainian prosecutor's office. An unprecedented increase confirmed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner. In its latest report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, the UN says it has “verified” the execution of fourteen Ukrainian soldiers between June 1 and August 31.
“They are told they are executing Nazis”
Notable since the launch of the Russian offensive in Donbass at the end of 2023, the phenomenon is said to have worsened further this fall. At least twelve investigations were opened in October and November, concerning the execution of 57 Ukrainian soldiers. According to a count of The Cross35 of these 57 soldiers were reportedly killed in the Pokrovsk region, named after this industrial city in Donbass, where the most violent fighting is currently taking place.
Like the video released on October 1, the majority of executions are revealed by the cameras of the drones which constantly fly over the battlefield. “It should be borne in mind that these images are filmed most often by chance, while the drone was carrying out its combat missions, so there may be even more cases», notes Ukrainian journalist Nastya Horpitchenko, who is working on creating a database of these war crimes for the investigative media Slidstvo. A handful of videos were also filmed and released by Russian soldiers themselves.
kyiv today denounces a large-scale phenomenon involving a wide variety of Russian units across the entire front line. “When it takes place in a very specific area, we might think that it was a commander who gave the order, but we see cases in the regions of KourskDonetsk, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv… This is not a decision of individual commandersassure Yuriy Belousov. This takes place against a backdrop of dehumanization of Ukrainian soldiers in the Russian media. They are told they are executing Nazis.»
“It’s not forbidden…so it’s allowed”
Like the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, Nastya Horpitchenko suspects that this explosion of cases is the result of a deliberate policy, and not a series of isolated tragedies. “Proving the systemic nature is complex, obviously», she admits, however. Especially since it is impossible for investigators to access the crime scenes. But the circumstances form a bundle of clues that are difficult to ignore, to which is added the absence of condemnation by the Russian authorities.
The Ukrainian prosecution also relies on interrogations of Russian soldiers captured by the Ukrainian army and who claim to have received orders not to seek to take prisoners. Because the challenge for Ukrainian investigators is not only to rule out the hypothesis of isolated cases: they are seeking to prove the nature of a possible Russian policy. From the tacit authorization known to all soldiers to an explicit order from the Russian high command to all units deployed on the front line.
