The Financial Times (FT) has identified the Russian serviceman who allegedly participated in the execution of Ukrainian prisoners. The soldier in question is 32-year-old Oleg Yakovlev, a soldier of the 30th separate motorized rifle brigade of the Russian Federation.
In January, he posted a video of a mass execution on his YouTube channel, which he later deleted.
The footage showed a masked Russian soldier ordering unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war to a pile of logs. The soldier and his comrades shot six Ukrainians in the back at close range.
The Russian military in the video addresses the masked man by the call sign “Sara”. Yakovlev uses the same name in his rap video and in another video posted on his YouTube channel.
Audio forensics experts compared the voice in the video with the shooting of Ukrainian fighters with audio from Yakovlevʼs social media. Experts found "strong elements of similarity" in the sound. At the same time, the FT notes that due to the specifics of audio file compression on social media, it is difficult to establish a definitive match.
Yakovlev denied his involvement — he stated that the Russian soldier in the video "did not kill these people for no reason".
According to Ukrainian authorities, Yakovlevʼs unit was involved in numerous war crimes, including battlefield executions. Putin awarded the brigade for "courage and heroism" last July.
A Financial Times investigative documentary has uncovered evidence that the executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers are not isolated incidents but likely part of a broader pattern that reflects a deliberate Russian policy. It also examines the chain of command and the Kremlin’s role in these war crimes.
An FT documentary has mapped more than 30 possible executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war captured on drone and mobile phone footage, proving that such crimes are happening across the front line. Prosecutors and human rights activists say this proves they are systemic, not isolated incidents.
Ukraineʼs National Police have opened more than 125 000 cases of war crimes of various kinds since the start of the full-scale invasion. Prosecutors said the number of executions rose sharply last year, with 43 incidents opened in 2024, involving 133 deaths.
“This is definitely part of the policy. We see a whole system,” the head of the war crimes department at the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine Yuriy Belousov told the FT.
According to him, investigating Russian executions is "priority number one".
Executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war
The Russians have executed at least 177 Ukrainian prisoners of war. Of the 177 confirmed cases, 109 occurred in 2024. This is data as of December 2024.
According to Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, his office learns about most cases from videos from Ukrainian special services. At the same time, there are cases when information comes directly from Ukrainian military units. In addition, the Russians publish relevant videos on social networks.
The Ukrainian side informs the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN about cases of execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Lubinets notes that the ICRC has never publicly or privately accused the Russians of murdering or torturing Ukrainian prisoners of war. But official UN reports for 2024 first revealed data that the Russians were executing Ukrainian defenders.
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