The Russian army «killed in cold blood soldiers willing to surrender»
The complaint comes from Human Rights Watch: since the beginning of December, Russian forces have executed “in cold blood” at least 15 Ukrainian soldiers who wanted to surrender on the front and another six who had already surrendered or were about to do so.
The non-governmental organization analyzed footage taken by drones from December 2nd and 27th and February 16th, 19th and 25th.
Although in some cases experts were unable to verify the exact location of events, they found that the victims were soldiers no longer engaged in combat and therefore should not be considered a target, despite the existence of an armed conflict.
In one of these cases, the images even show how at least seven Ukrainian soldiers left the trench and took off their protective gear to face five armed Russian soldiers. Three of the latter opened fire and six Ukrainians fell to the ground, while the seventh tried unsuccessfully to return to the trench before being shot down.
In another video, presumably captured by a Russian drone, a voice is heard proclaiming: “Take no prisoners, shoot everyone.”
According to Human Rights Watch, these are not isolated incidents: reports from the United Nations Human Rights Mission also record cases of summary executions of prisoners of war since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022 and the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office has 27 investigations opened on the death of 54 prisoners of war.
(Here is the full HRW report, from which the image below is taken)
