DISINFO: Kyiv and the West encourages killing Russian prisoners
SUMMARY
11 Russian prisoners of war were executed by the Ukrainians and then made to look as if they had been killed by artillery fire.
The brutal killing of Russian POWs is not the first and not an isolated war crime. It is a widespread practice by the Ukrainian armed forces, actively supported by the Kyiv regime and blindly ignored by its Western patrons.
RESPONSE
This new pro-Kremlin disinformation is about possible war crimes committed during Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The article claims that killing prisoners of war is a common practice of the Ukrainian forces, encouraged by Kyiv and the West.
The material and links may contain distressing/ graphic content.
There is no evidence that committing war crimes is a common practice of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, or it is encouraged by Kyiv or any Western country. These claims are presented in order to undermine Ukraine’s credibility and international support, and to relativize documented and widespread war crimes committed by the invading Russian forces.
The United Nations investigators said last month that they had documented cases of Russian forces torturing civilian and military prisoners. The investigators also found that Ukrainian troops had tortured and abused prisoners of war, but “on a lesser scale.” As for the claim about the war crimes responsibility, Ukraine is investigating more than 21,000 war crimes and crimes of aggression committed by Russia.
This new narrative comes after a series of videos that surfaced on social media last week has ignited a debate over whether Ukrainian forces committed war crimes or acted in self-defense as they tried to capture a group of Russian soldiers who were then killed. The killings occurred as the Ukrainian Army recaptured the village of Makiivka, in the Luhansk region, in mid-November. At the moment it is still unclear whether war crimes have been committed, the investigations are still ongoing.
Videos circulated in social media and verified by The New York Times shows Ukrainian soldiers capturing Russian soldiers, when the last, 11th Russian soldier emerges from the outhouse, he opens fire, aiming at one of the Ukrainian soldiers. Iva Vukusic, a war crimes prosecution expert at Utrecht University, said to The New York Times, that it is difficult to determine whether a war crime had or had not been committed based on the video evidence alone, and that the critical factor was time — when the Russians were shot.
The United Nations has said the episode should be investigated. “We are aware of the videos, and we are looking into them,” Marta Hurtado, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Human Rights Office, told Reuters on Friday. “Allegations of summary executions of people hors de combat should be promptly, fully and effectively investigated, and any perpetrators held to account.”
The EU resolutely condemns Russia’s indiscriminate attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, and urges Russia to immediately and unconditionally withdraw all its troops and military equipment from the entire territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders.
Several states, including Estonia, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine, announced in March and April 2022 that they would conduct investigations of war crimes in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine under the universal jurisdiction principle of international humanitarian law.
Read more about the EU's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine along with EU vs Disinfo's Guide to Deciphering Pro-Kremlin disinformation around Putin's War.