Drone shows moment Putin's killers shoot dead Ukrainian troops trying to surrender
FOOTAGE of up to nine Ukrainian soldiers apparently being shot dead by Russians while surrendering went viral yesterday.
The drone video is said to have been filmed near Ivanivske village, close to the eastern city of Bakhmut, on Saturday.
In what Kyiv sources say is the third such killing of surrendering troops in the past month, Ukrainian soldiers emerge from a frontline trench as Vladimir Putin’s forces make territorial gains.
Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko said on X: “Russians shoot Ukrainian soldiers [who] surrendered into captivity.
“Evil must be stopped and punished... Give Ukraine weapons!”
Russian opposition channel February Morning said: “The invaders shot nine unarmed Ukrainian prisoners in the Bakhmut direction. The barbarity of Putin’s non-humans knows no bounds.” Under international rules, the soldiers should have been taken as prisoners of war.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said: “The video we obtained shows Ukrainian soldiers surrendering: their hands were raised in the air, showing that they were unarmed and did not pose a threat.The Russians were supposed to take them prisoner but instead mercilessly shot them.”
He added: “Such an execution is a war crime. We also now know from which military unit of the Russian army the soldiers who mercilessly executed the Ukrainians were.
“I will immediately send letters to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to ensure that the organisations record and publicly acknowledge that the Russian military is killing Ukrainian prisoners.
“For the Russian army, the Geneva Conventions, rules and customs of war mean nothing. They act according to their own unspoken ‘conventions’, ‘rules’ and ‘customs’ – cruelty, meanness, and lowliness.”
Moscow is already being investigated by the International Criminal Court for thousands of alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
There is also a warrant for the arrest of President Putin for the alleged abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children into Russia.
Marking the two-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion at the weekend, Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky said at least 31,000 Kyiv troops had died so far. However, the US said the real figure was likely to be much higher.
Mr Zelensky said 180,000 Russian soldiers had been killed and tens of thousands more injured.
Meanwhile Hungary’s parliament voted 188-6 to ratify Sweden’s bid to join Nato yesterday. It ends more than 18 months of delays that have frustrated the Western military alliance. The vote followed weeks of wrangling by allies to convince Hungary’s nationalist government to lift its block.
Right-wing PM Viktor Orban’s government, which has forged close ties with Russia, submitted the protocols for approving the Scandinavian nation’s entry in July 2022. But the issue stalled over opposition by governing party MPs.
Nato requires unanimous support among all 31 members to admit new countries. Last weekend, a cross-party group of US senators who visited Hungary said they would submit a joint resolution to Congress condemning what they called Hungary’s democratic backsliding over Sweden.
But Mr Orban and Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson appeared to reach a decisive reconciliation in Hungary’s capital Budapest on Friday. They also concluded a defence deal that includes Hungary buying four Swedishmade JAS 39 Gripen jets.