Vladimir Putin‘s Russian troops are being accused of a new war crime, as a video has emerged showing an executioner calling on his comrades to film as at least six Ukrainian POWs are cold-bloodedly shot dead.
Kyiv has launched a criminal investigation and reported the barbaric mass killing to the United Nations and Red Cross.
The savage Russian soldiers in the occupied Donetsk region film themselves committing the illegal battlefield massacre.
‘This one’s mine,’ says one of the Russia soldiers after demanding, ‘Give me two machine guns’.
The POWs are seen lying face down on the ground as the occupiers decide to kill them.
‘Get the camera,’ one Russian is heard saying. ‘Get the phone, get the phone, get the phone, get the phone, film me.’
The prisoners are told to ‘get the f*** over here, one at a time over here, hurry up. One at a time. Over here, on your knees.’
They are ordered: ‘Go, go, we’ll kill you anyway.’
At least two Russians are seen shooting the kneeling victims from behind. Others were shot as they walked to the murder spot.
Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said: ‘In the video, the occupiers themselves recorded their own crime – the shooting in the back of six Ukrainian soldiers who were captured.
‘The video cuts off when the seventh soldier lies on the ground, his fate unknown.
‘The shooting of each of the captured soldiers takes place in front of other comrades.
‘At the same time, the occupiers order them to ‘lie down and shut their mouths’.
‘The ‘operator’ of the crime voices “One is mine”, and later we see him firing a series of bullets into the back of one of the prisoners of war.’
Lubinets stressed: ‘The Russian army has never been famous for its dignified treatment of prisoners of war, and here it once again demonstrates its helplessness and criminality.’
He has sent details to the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross.
‘The lack of responsibility has turned the crime into a systematic one.
‘We cannot turn a blind eye to this.
‘Ukraine needs justice and responsibility for those who commit crimes and do not adhere to any norms.’
The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said: ‘During the assault on the positions of Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk region, the occupiers captured six servicemen of the Defence Forces of Ukraine and subsequently shot them.
‘The shooting of prisoners of war is a serious violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War and is classified as a grave international crime.’
It comes as Western officials said about 1,000 ‘elite’ North Korean troops who were reportedly led by Russian officers they ‘don’t understand’ have been slaughtered in just three months while fighting Ukraine.
North Korea sent around 11,000 troops and 4,000 have been killed, wounded, are missing or captured.
Officials who spoke anonymously said that an estimated 1,000 of these were killed by mid-January.
The North Korean troops, reportedly from an ‘elite’ unit called the Storm Corps, appear to have been thrown into the war with little training or protection.
Former British Army tank commander, Col Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, said they are ‘barely trained’ and led by ‘Russian officers who they don’t understand‘.
He said the troops don’t ‘stand a chance and are being used as ‘cannon fodder’.
These losses are unsustainable by the North Koreans and point to a very high cost to the ally of Vladimir Putin.
He is trying to get rid of Ukrainian forces from in Russia ahead of any possible ceasefire negotiations later in the year.
