Russian soldiers allegedly shot dead 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war in eastern Ukraine, marking the largest known execution of POWs in the two-and-a-half-year war, Ukrainian prosecutors said Tuesday.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said videos circulating on social media appeared to show Russian servicemen committing the war crime near the Donetsk region city of Pokrovsk, which Moscow has been trying to capture for months.
According to the agency, Russian troops deliberately opened fire on Ukrainian soldiers who were lined up after being captured in a forest.
“The wounded who showed signs of life were killed at close range by an automatic rifle burst,” Ukrainian prosecutors said.
The Moscow Times could not independently verify where or when the footage was filmed. The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said it was verifying the published footage.
Russia has not yet commented on the accusations.
“This is the largest known case of execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war on the front line,” the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said in its statement.
The office said it had launched an investigation into violations of the laws and customs of war.
Moscow and Kyiv have on several occasions accused the other side of killing prisoners of war since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.