Russian military has executed at least 15 Ukrainian soldiers when they tried to surrender since December last year, — HRW

Since early December 2023, the Russian military is believed to have executed at least 15 Ukrainian servicemen while attempting to surrender, and possibly six more who surrendered or had already surrendered.

This is reported by Human Rights Watch.

Analysts studied drone footage. The deputy director of the Crisis and Conflicts Department emphasized that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russian military «committed many terrible war crimes».

Analysts of the organization watched the video of the alleged extrajudicial execution of at least 12 Ukrainian soldiers. In all these cases, Ukrainian servicemen demonstrated an obvious intention to surrender. Since they no longer took part in hostilities, that is, they were considered persons who had dropped out of the ranks (hors de combat), in accordance with the norms of international humanitarian law and the laws of war, they could not be the object of an attack.

The investigation of another incident was based on an interview with a Ukrainian military officer, the video of which was posted on one of the Telegram channels on February 16 of this year, as well as on media materials. According to available information, in this case the Russians executed six servicemen, although the circumstances of the incident «were less obvious» than in other cases.

Photo: HRW

Human rights defenders assume that cases of such executions are not isolated. The authors of the report appealed to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to comment on the cases, but they did not receive a response.

We will remind you that in Mykolaiv every week there are reminder actions about the prisoners of war of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In particular, on Sunday, February 18, a rally of relatives and friends in support of prisoners of war was held in Mykolaiv. Among the protesters are the relatives of captured Mykolaiv soldiers, including defenders of «Azovstal».

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Also, on February 4, a large-scale action in support of prisoners of war and missing Ukrainian soldiers took place in Mykolaiv.

Even earlier, on October 28, in Mykolaiv, before the All-Ukrainian Day of Support for the Army, a rally was already held with the demand to direct money from the city budget not to roads and improvements, but to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

As you know, the Mykolayiv City Council has already allocated about 700 million hryvnias to the needs of the Defense Forces.

In addition, on November 4, residents of Mykolaiv joined the action in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

It was previously reported that on January 31, Ukraine returned 207 Ukrainian soldiers from Russian captivity. 83 of them are National Guardsmen, border guards and policemen.

We will remind, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi emphasized that all efforts are aimed at the release of all prisoners of war, including those who were captured while covering the withdrawal of troops near Avdiivka.