Russians execute unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war with sword

Iryna Balachuk — Tuesday, 17 September 2024, 09:30

Dmytro Lubinets, Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Commissioner for Human Rights, has reported another crime committed by the Russians - the brutal execution of an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets on Telegram

Quote from Lubinets: "Another war crime: the Russians used a sword to execute an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war with his hands tied with tape. The level of barbarism and bloodthirstiness is incomprehensible."

Details: Dmytro Lubinets stressed that such actions are a gross violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners of war.

Lubinets said that he had sent letters to international organisations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN to record another human rights violation by Russia.

A photo of an executed Ukrainian soldier was posted on social media on the morning of 17 September. The soldier had been stabbed to death with a sword with the inscription ‘For Kursk’ on it. Grey adhesive tape is visible on the soldier's hand, which means that his hands were probably tied before the execution.

The photo shows a bloody body lying on the road against the backdrop of damaged machinery and a house with smashed windows. It is not known exactly where this happened. 

Background: 

  • The Office of the Prosecutor General reported that the Russians had beheaded an Armed Forces serviceman in Donetsk Oblast in June, and Ukrainian prosecutors opened an investigation.
  • While carrying out aerial reconnaissance at a combat position in Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian forces spotted a damaged armoured vehicle belonging to the Ukrainian defence forces. The severed head of a Ukrainian defender was lying on top of it.
  • On 19 June, Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said that the identity of the soldier beheaded by the Russians in Donetsk Oblast had been established and that the Russian commanders responsible for the war crime had been identified.
  • In August, Dmytro Lubinets urgently appealed to the ICRC and the UN, as well as to Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, after a photo appeared online allegedly showing the body of a Ukrainian prisoner whose head and limbs had been cut off by the Russians

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