Kyiv knows of 93 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) who were summarily executed by Russian soldiers on the battlefield throughout the full-scale war, a senior representative of the Prosecutor General's Office said on national television on Oct. 4.
Yurii Belousov, the head of the department focused on war-related crimes, explained that 80% of these cases were recorded in 2024, but the trend appeared already late last year.
"Since November 2023, the approach of the Russian military toward our prisoners has significantly changed for the worse," Belousov said.
The largest recorded case of mass execution of Ukrainian POWs was reported on Oct. 1. Sixteen prisoners were shot by Russian forces in Donetsk Oblast in a single instance, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
According to Belousov, these victims included soldiers from two different units. The prosecutors tentatively identified the executed POWs but continue verifying the information "out of concern for their loved ones."
The prosecutor said that other Ukrainian prisoners have been killed by Russia in places of detention. He reminded a case recently reported by the U.N. of 10 POWs dying of "torture, lack of medical care, and dire health conditions."
Victoria Tsymbaliuk, a representative of the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of POWs, said earlier on Oct. 4 that at least 177 Ukrainian prisoners have died in Russian captivity since the beginning of Moscow's full-scale invasion.
"The murders and torture of prisoners are not an accident, but a purposeful policy of the Russian military and political leadership," Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said.
Kseniya Kvitka
(Updated: )
