UN says Russia executed POWS, tortures captives

Ukrainian prisoners of war are being executed by their Russian captors in ever higher numbers amid ongoing human rights and abuses and inhumane treatment, United Nations monitors said.

A record 32 Ukrainian POWS were executed in 12 separate incidents in the three months through February amid widespread torture and ill-treatment, deaths in custody, incommunicado detention, disappearances, and dire conditions of detention, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said of its latest findings issued Tuesday.

The 28-page report from December through February is based on the testimony of 60 recently released Ukrainian POWS.