“The shooting of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Avdiivka and Vesselé: investigations have begun
,” the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said late Sunday on Telegram.
The day after the withdrawal of Kiev forces from Avdiivka, a town near Donetsk, several investigations were opened into the alleged execution by Russian soldiers of eight prisoners of war in eastern Ukraine.
The Telegram channel DeepState, close to the Ukrainian army, thus affirmed that the Russian army had executed by shooting six Ukrainian soldiers, including four wounded, surrounded in a position south of Avdiïvka, probably on Thursday, before the Ukrainian withdrawal complete overview of this industrial city.
At the time of the statements, the AFP was not able to verify the authenticity of these images.
Ukrainian ground forces also accused Russian soldiers on Sunday of shooting two prisoners of war in another area of eastern Ukraine.
“The Russians have once again shown their attitude towards international humanitarian law by shooting two Ukrainian prisoners of war
,” they said on Telegram.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor's office, the incident took place near the village of Vesselé, northeast of Bakhmut, a town captured by Russia in May 2023 after months of fierce fighting.
The ground forces broadcast a short black and white video made from a drone in which we can see a soldier shooting at point blank range at two soldiers who are in the same trench as him and who do not offer any resistance.
At the time of the statements, the AFP was not able to verify the authenticity of these images.
The two belligerents have already repeatedly accused each other of having killed prisoners of war since the start, in February 2022, of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In March 2023, a video appeared to show a captured Ukrainian soldier, executed by gunfire after saying
“glory to Ukraine!”
, had gone viral.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights recalled at the time that it had
“documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law against prisoners of war, including cases of summary executions of prisoners of Russian and Ukrainian war
.