Advancing Russian forces in eastern Ukraine shot unarmed Ukrainian soldiers as they surrendered close to the embattled town of Avdiivka, Ukraine’s military has told Newsweek after graphic footage appearing to show the moments of execution surfaced online over the weekend.
A brief video clip, which emerged on a Ukrainian Telegram channel on Saturday, appears to show two soldiers leaving their positions and surrendering to Russian forces.
The video, which looks to have been filmed using an airborne drone, shows one person lying face down on the ground, with several armed soldiers keeping their weapons trained on the fighter. Shortly after, a second figure leaves his position, and a series of gunshots appear to hit both surrendering figures.
Vlada Liberova/Libkos via Getty Images
The Ukrainian Telegram channel said the footage was recorded near the Ukrainian village of Stepove, which is on the outskirts of the embattled Donetsk town of Avdiivka. It did not specify when it was recorded, but said the fighters belonged to the country’s 45th Rifle Battalion.
Newsweek has not included a link to the footage due to its graphic nature.
“According to confirmed information, Russian occupiers treacherously shot unarmed Ukrainian soldiers,” Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Tavria grouping of forces that covers Avdiivka, told Newsweek on Sunday.
The video was filmed at some point in the past week, Shtupun said. “The Russian Federation once again violated the laws and customs of war, [and] norms of international law.”
It is a war crime to kill or wound a fighter who has given up their weapons and surrendered. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Kyiv’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said he had contacted the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross about the footage, saying the Ukrainian soldiers “did not pose any threat” to the Russian fighters.
Ukrainian intelligence and law enforcement will attempt to identify the Russian soldiers in the clip, he said in a statement.
The Ukrainian military appeared to confirm the authenticity of the footage in a brief statement on Saturday, saying the video showed the “execution” of two Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The village of Stepove is around 1.8 miles northwest of Avdiivka, where Russian forces have been launching assaults on defenses since October 10. The town has spent much of the past decade on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, and would be a significant prize for Moscow.
The Kremlin’s troops have advanced south of Stepove, U.S. think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest analysis. Russian military bloggers have claimed that its forces were gaining ground around Stepove and several other settlements close to Avdiivka, and consolidated positions in the industrial district to the southeast of the town, the think tank said on Saturday.
On Sunday morning, the General Staff of Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had launched 25 attacks close to Avdiivka, including on Stepove. Ukraine repelled these attacks and are holding defensive lines as Moscow continues to try to surround Avdiivka, Kyiv said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had repelled several Ukrainian attacks in Donetsk, including on the town of Marinka to the southwest of Avdiivka, but Moscow did not specifically mention the devastated settlement.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.