The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman received “dozens of videos” of executions of Ukrainian soldiers by Russians

Over the past nine months, the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman has received "dozens of videos" of executions of Ukrainian military personnel by Russian soldiers.

The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets stated this in an interview with "Ukraiinska Pravda" ["Ukrainian Truth"].

According to him, in the video, Russian soldiers cut off heads, genitals, ears, noses, limbs and phalanges on the hands. Some of them were verified, and one was punished. He died during a battle with the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

In general, 86% of Ukrainian soldiers were physically tortured while in Russian captivity, the Ombudsman claims. In each case, Ukraine opens proceedings for ill-treatment of prisoners of war.

According to Dmytro Lubinets, Russia is spreading videos of the executions of prisoners in order to support anti-Ukrainian sentiments in Russian society and to convince the occupiers not to surrender to the Ukrainians, saying that they will do the same as the Russians do. Another goal of the enemy is to intimidate the Defense Forces of Ukraine to launch a counteroffensive.

• On July 28, 2022, a video of abuse of a prisoner of war in Ukrainian camouflage appeared in one of the Russian Telegram channels. Two other Russian-speaking soldiers castrated the prisoner with a clerical knife. In another video, a tortured soldier is shot in the head and his body is dragged into a ditch. The UN said they were "shocked". In early August, Bellingcat journalists were able to identify a Russian soldier who castrated a Ukrainian prisoner of war.
• On March 6, 2023, activists Serhiy Sternenko and Ihor Lachenkov posted on Twitter a video of the Russians shooting a captured Ukrainian soldier. He was executed after he answered the occupiers: "Glory to Ukraine." The killing of unarmed prisoners of war is a war crime under the Geneva Convention. The security service opened a criminal case for the shooting of a Ukrainian prisoner of war under Art. 438 part 2 of the Criminal Code — violation of the laws and customs of war. Later, it was established that the video showed a soldier of the 119th separate brigade of the Territorial Defence Forces of the Chernihiv region Oleksandr Matsievskyi.
• On the evening of April 11, 2023, another video appeared on the Internet, which allegedly shows the execution of a Ukrainian soldier. In a video shared by the Russians, people in military uniforms with white ribbons (usually used for identification by the Russian military in Ukraine) behead a living person wearing a uniform with Ukrainian insignia. Later, the CNN TV channel found another video with the beheading of Ukrainian soldiers, which was carried out by the mercenaries of the PMC "Wagner".