Russians return bodies of 5 of 6 Ukrainian POWs executed in Avdiivka – media

Russia has returned the bodies of five of the six Ukrainian soldiers executed at Zenit, a defence position in the city of Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, in February 2024.

Source: Slidstvo.Info media outlet

Details: In February 2024, Russian troops at the Zenit defence position executed six soldiers from Ukraine’s 110th Separate Mechanised Brigade named after Marko Bezruchko.

On 16 February 2024, the Russians released a video showing the bodies of five dead Ukrainian soldiers at the Zenit strongpoint. The bodies had been dumped in some water.

Relatives identified three of the fallen soldiers: Heorhii Pavlov, Andrii Dubnytskyi and Ivan Zhytnyk.

"I was the first to find my husband's body. I wrote on Telegram groups that I was looking for my husband and described the tattoos on his body. His body arrived in a prisoner swap on 29 March 2024. I received a message from a woman who deals with such bodies and who founded a group to search for defenders who were MIA and KIA," says Andrii Dubytskyi’s wife Liudmyla. 

Liudmyla immediately wrote about this in a group chat with other family members of the soldiers executed at Zenit. All the bodies were brought to Kyiv.

Heorhii Pavlov, who went by the alias Panda, was in the Russian video along with Dubytskyi. His mother, Inna, recognised him.

Ivan "Django" Zhytnyk's sister, Kateryna, had hoped to the end that her brother would be given medical treatment and brought back alive. 

But she recognised her brother's body in the Russian video by his clothes and the water bottle he was holding when they were taken out of the position by the Russians.

The names of the other three soldiers remain unknown.

More than six months after the tragedy, the bodies of five of the six prisoners of war have been brought back to Ukraine.

Background:

• During its withdrawal from the occupied positions, the 110th Brigade said Russian forces had promised to evacuate the wounded Ukrainian soldiers who remained encircled at the Zenit strongpoint. Instead, they executed them.
• Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukrainian law enforcement has documented the execution of 102 Ukrainian POWs on the battlefield by Russian forces.

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