UN documents six more cases of summary executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded six cases of summary executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war between February and July 2023.

In the UN report, experts say they reviewed six authentic videos showing executions of Ukrainian POWs by Russian occupation forces, Rubryka reports.

Among them were two videos spread on social media on March 6 and April 11 of this year, showing the Russian armed forces torturing and executing two Ukrainian prisoners of war. 

The first verified video depicted Russian soldiers shooting Ukrainian sniper Oleksandr Matsievskyi after his last words, "Glory to Ukraine." In the second video, a Russian serviceman beheads an unknown Ukrainian soldier.

"OHCHR has reasonable grounds to believe that both videos, which were likely recorded before the reporting period, are authentic," the report says.

The report stresses that executions of prisoners of war are serious violations of the Geneva Conventions and are considered war crimes. Since the start of the invasion in February 2022, the UN has documented the extrajudicial execution or torture to death of 25 Russian and 21 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The UN adds no executions of Russian prisoners of war were documented between February and July 2023.

The report also discusses the torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia. The UN continues to document "appalling conditions of detention, including forced labor."

Out of 56 Ukrainian servicemen interviewed by the UN mission during the reporting period, 51 said that they were tortured and subjected to ill-treatment or sexual violence, including forced nudity and threats.

UNHCR also reported that out of 26 Russian prisoners interviewed by them, 12 claimed torture during interrogations.

"Ukrainian authorities continued to use unofficial places of internment in violation of the obligation to officially record all POWs and give access to independent monitors," the report says. "OHCHR received credible information that the Main Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine continued to run an unofficial place of internment for POWs in its quarters on Rybalskyi island in Kyiv."

OHCHR notes the improvement of conditions for Russian prisoners of war. "OHCHR observed a marked improvement in the treatment of POWs in the POW camp in Lviv, notably increased portions of food and the discontinuation of physical exercise as a punishment," the mission says.

According to the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War, also signed by Russia, prisoners must be guaranteed life and humane detention conditions. Executions or ill-treatment of prisoners of war are war crimes.

As Rubryka reported, the UN also verified that the ammunition used to fire at the occupied Olenivka colony with the captured Ukrainian military was moving along a trajectory from east to west, proving the Russian forces staged an attack.

The Russian media reported on the Olenivka shelling in the Donetsk region in July 2022. Propagandists claimed at least 53 Ukrainian soldiers to be killed.

Intelligence agencies believe that the killing of Ukrainian prisoners in Olenivka in the Donetsk region was organized by the Wagner mercenaries on the personal instructions of Yevgeny Prigozhin without coordinating it with the Russian defense ministry's leadership.

The Security Service of Ukraine intercepted telephone conversations in which the Russian soldiers confirmed that Russian troops were responsible for the explosion in the occupied Olenivka colony.