Russian forces seem to have summarily executed a group of surrendering Ukrainian soldiers near Pokrovsk in late August, CNN reported on Sept. 6, publishing an exclusive video.
Key developments on Sept. 4: * Casualties reported in Lviv, Kryvyi Rih as Russia launches another mass attack on Ukraine * Ukrainian military uses 'dragon drones' against Russia, Defense Ministry says * Germany orders 17 IRIS-T air defense systems for Ukraine, Scholz says * Ukraine, Ireland sign agreement on cooperation, support * Russia executed 3
Earlier, a video circulated on Telegram that showed three Ukrainian soldiers coming out of a basement with their hands up. The Ukrainians were then apprehended by Russian soldiers, placed face down on the ground and summarily shot.
According to Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, Oleksandr Lyubas was part of a small group of Ukrainian soldiers who attempted to conduct an amphibious operation on the peninsula and was captured in the process.
Russian authorities detained two Colombian nationals who fought for Ukraine, Russia's Security Service (FSB) said on Aug. 30. The two Colombian men were extradited from Venezuela after being detained by Venezuelan authorities during a layover in Caracas, on-route back home to Colombia.
Halfway down a narrow corridor painted all in gray, the guard wrestles with a bulky lock to gain entry to the prison cell. Inside are around twenty young men, sitting on a criss-crossing pattern of metal bunk beds. In the corner of the room, plastic cups and books are stacked
Among those brought back were soldiers from the National Guard, army, navy, and the State Border Guard Service.
The seizure of the penal colony will be an important step in documenting war crimes committed by Russia against prisoners of war, Media Initiative for Human Rights reported on Aug. 23.
The Russian Prosecutor's Office claimed that all the prisoners expressed "negative attitudes toward the Russian-speaking population" and supported "pro-Ukrainian radical views."
Ukrainian forces are in control of 92 settlements and more than 1,250 square kilometers of Kursk Oblast in Russia as the incursion into the region continues, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Aug. 19.
The head of mission for the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Danielle Bell, reported that Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories are systematically subjected to torture.
The legion called upon Russian soldiers to "surrender to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as (their) comrades did." Those who "want to continue fighting for the normal future of Russia" were invited to join the unit.
Ukrainian special forces captured 102 Russian and Chechen soldiers in Kursk Oblast on Aug. 14, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) told the Kyiv Independent on Aug. 15.
Azov Brigade soldier Oleksandr Ishchenko died in Russian captivity due to a blunt force trauma to his chest, according to a forensic expert report, published by Azov deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar on Aug. 7.
Some 533 of the Russian soldiers were found alive among the number of POWs, and 100 of them had already been released to Russia as a part of a prisoner exchange.
The photo, which is circulating on social media, shows the body of a person with his head and limbs cut off. It is unknown when the photo was taken. The Kyiv Independent was unable to verify it.
Ishchenko was 55-years-old and a native of Mariupol, Ukrainska Pravda reported. He joined the Azov Brigade as a driver shortly after the launch of Russia's full-scale invasion and was captured in Mariupol in 2022.
The Prosecutor General's Office said the investigation involved statements from 20 victims and 30 eyewitnesses, as well as forensic evidence of those killed. The two unnamed Russian commanders have been charged in absentia with violating the laws of war.
Two years after an explosion killed at least 54 Ukrainian prisoners of war and injured over 150 more at a penal colony in Russian-occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast on July 28-29, 2022, no one has been held accountable as Russia continues to block investigation efforts.
"We are talking about people who do not consider Ukraine, European democratic values, or our state constitution theirs, but consider the aggressor state, Russia, their country. And they want to get there," Ukraine's military intelligence spokesperson Andrii Yusov said.
Ukraine's Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets commented on the recent interview of Boris Michel, the head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Russia, with the Russian state-controlled media RIA Novosti.
Another 95 Ukrainian defenders have been brought back home, including service members of the Armed Forces, the National Guard, and the Border Guard, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on July 17.
Ukraine lists 42,000 citizens in a unified register for persons missing under special circumstances, an Interior Ministry official said, Ukrinform reported on July 17.
Ukrainian soldiers have said that Russia often fails to evacuate injured troops and at times sends its own wounded soldiers back to the battlefield.
The released captives include 32 personnel of the National Guard, including those who defended the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant, 18 border guards, 17 personnel of the Navy, 15 soldiers of the Armed Forces as well as eight of the territorial defense, the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported.
The Kyiv Independent has obtained footage of Ukrainian authorities questioning a Nepali prisoner of war captured when he was fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The footage was obtained from intelligence sources. The Kyiv Independent edited it for brevity.
A video taken in the second half of May captured Russian troops executing four surrendering Ukrainian soldiers near Robotyne, a front-line village in the southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
In a post on social media, Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said his office has received information that Russian commanders had given orders "not to capture Ukrainian servicemen, but instead to kill them with inhuman cruelty - by beheading."
"If the Russians were interested in returning their prisoners of war, we would have done it long ago. It seems that they simply do not need them," Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on June 15.
Ukraine's military intelligence spokesperson, Andrii Yusov, disputed Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims on the numbers of Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war (POW) in a comment for the Liga outlet on June 6.
Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on June 2 that he appealed to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to investigate videos showing beatings, humiliation, and threats of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers in the Kharkiv direction.
The number includes service personnel of the Armed Forces and the National Guard, border guards, and four civilians.
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