Did Ukrainian soldiers ‘butcher’ unarmed Russian soldiers who surrendered?

Moscow has charged Ukraine with killing more than 10 Russian prisoners of war (PoW) after a graphic video showing surrendering soldiers being shot to death went viral on social media. The Russian defence ministry declared that the brutal killing of Russian service members was neither the first nor the only war crime.

The Kyiv dictatorship openly supports this prevalent behaviour in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and its Western backers shamelessly overlook it, the statement continued. The video depicts what appear to be Russian forces in the Makiivka city of the Luhansk area of eastern Ukraine, where it is illegal to kill prisoners of war. In the aftermath of a fierce gunfight between the two sides, the video shows a decaying building structure and its backyard.

The video, which was apparently recorded by a Ukrainian soldier, depicts the unarmed Russian soldiers who had surrendered by lying face down on the ground. With their hands raised above their heads, two more Russian soldiers exit the structure and join the members of their unit lying on the ground. Soldiers from the Ukrainian squad may be seen with yellow armbands. However, pro-Russian publications claim that as the film nears its conclusion, a sudden rain of gunfire can be heard and the camera shakes quite a bit, implying that the Russian soldiers were massacred there and then.

The same region and the house are seen in the later-released drone film, where it seems that the bodies of the’surrendering troops’ are apparently lying motionless in a pool of blood. Russian officials think that Ukraine’s 80th airborne assault brigade butchered its own men, contrary to pro-Ukrainian media reports that the soldiers were killed in a drone attack.

A spokesman for the UN Human Rights office, Marta Hurtado, stated that the organisation was aware of the video and urged an appropriate inquiry into the situation. ‘We are investigating the films and are aware of them. Allegations of summary killings of those hors combat should be swiftly, completely, and properly investigated, with any offenders being held accountable’.