UN’s Mission in Ukraine recognizes Russia deliberately executes Ukrainian POWs

Russian military forces are executing captive Ukrainian soldiers at an accelerated rate, a recent United Nations (UN) report says. 

It stated that “many Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered or were in physical custody of the Russian armed forces were shot dead on the spot. Witness accounts also described the killings of unarmed and injured Ukrainian soldiers.” 

The report titled, “Ukraine: alarming rise in execution of captured Ukrainian military personnel” was released by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine on Feb. 3.

Since the end of August 2024, the UN has recorded 79 executions by Russian forces across 24 separate incidents. In some cases, multiple executions occurred within a single incident.

The UN described the rise in executions as “alarming.”

“These incidents did not occur in a vacuum. Public figures in the Russian Federation have explicitly called for inhumane treatment, and even execution, of captured Ukrainian military personnel,” said Danielle Bell, who heads the UN’s monitoring in Ukraine.

The executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russia represent one of the largest deliberate campaigns of killing prisoners in modern history, said Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha.

“Russia’s horrific executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war demonstrate that Ukraine confronts true beasts,” Sybiha wrote on social media, urging “urgent international action.”

Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin has previously stated that the execution of Ukrainian prisoners is not isolated, but a deliberate policy by Russia.

In October, the Ukrainian World Congress officially began cooperating with the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War to protect the rights of Ukrainian prisoners and civilians detained by Russia, as well as to support the families affected by Russian aggression.