Russian forces executed 2 Ukrainian POWs in Donetsk Oblast, prosecutors say
Russian troops shot dead two unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war on Dec. 27 in the village of Shakhove near Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reported on Dec. 29, in what appeared to be at least the third reported case this month of captured Ukrainian soldiers being killed after being taken prisoner.
According to the investigation, Russian soldiers forced one of the POWs to partially undress at gunpoint before executing both.
"Seeing that the prisoners of war were dead, they also took off the clothes of the second defender who had already been killed," the Prosecutor General's Office said.
A pretrial investigation has been launched under Article 438.2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which covers war crimes resulting in death. The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office is overseeing the case.
Earlier this month, DeepState, a Ukrainian open-source mapping group, reported that three Ukrainian POWs were executed south of Huliaipole in Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Dec. 20. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office said a separate case involved a surrendered soldier who was shot dead in the Siversk direction on Dec. 5. Such killings are considered war crimes and are prohibited under the Geneva Conventions.
Ukraine has documented widespread violations of the Geneva Conventions by Russian forces, including the execution of at least 322 captured Ukrainian soldiers as of October 2025, according to the Prosecutor General's Office.
Of those cases, 263 occurred on the battlefield, while others have been linked to incidents such as the 2022 Olenivka prison explosion in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast.
Ukrainian officials and human rights organizations have repeatedly reported torture, abuse, and inhumane treatment of Ukrainian POWs held in Russian captivity. As of September 2025, over 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers remain imprisoned in Russia, with little or no information available about their condition or fate.
