Ukrainian Ombudsman reports new POW executions by Russian forces
Ombudsman of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets stated there has been another instance of Russian army personnel executing captured unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Illustration image. Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.“The released video shows at least five prisoners of war that had been allegedly executed. Once again, we see a cynical disregard for international humanitarian law on the part of the Russian army,” he wrote.
He sent letters to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross after a video emerged showing the bodies of five Ukrainian soldiers apparently executed after capture by the Russians.
Other sources suggest the incident allegedly happened in Russia’s Kurs’k region.
On February 3, 2025, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine expressed alarm at a sharp rise in reported executions of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian armed forces.
Executions of the Ukrainian POWs is a common practice among Russian soldiers. One of the cases also occurred in December 2024. Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights pointed out on December 22 that the 110th Marko Bezruchko Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces provided a video of a war crime. On that video Russians killed captured five Ukrainian POWs.
Lubinets insists that Russian war criminals who are executing Ukrainian prisoners of war must be brought before an international tribunal and face the most severe punishment prescribed by law.
According to the Media Initiative for Human Rights, citing the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Ukraine retrieved the bodies of 184 Ukrainians who died in Russian captivity between February 24, 2022, and the end of October 2024: 169 military personnel and 15 civilians.
