Russian forces in the Volnovakha district of Donetsk region have beheaded a Ukrainian soldier, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said.
According to him, yesterday the Ukrainian military received information that one of the units of the Russian Federation in the Volnovakha district was ordered not to capture Ukrainian soldiers and instead behead them. After that, aerial reconnaissance found a damaged armored car of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a human head on the hood.
“New horrifying evidence of Russia’s criminal policy aimed at the extermination of Ukrainians: we have received information that Russian commanders have ordered not to take Ukrainian soldiers as prisoners but to kill them with inhumane cruelty—by decapitation,” Prosecutor General wrote.
“This terrible barbarism must have no place in the 21st century. This is yet another proof that the war crimes committed by the aggressor are not isolated incidents but a planned strategy of the Russian regime. These criminal orders were given at the command level of the battalion and the company of the occupation forces. We will not let these crimes go unpunished. I call on the entire civilized world to isolate the terrorist state and bring it to justice,” Kostin added.
This is not the first time Russia has shot Ukrainian POWs. The killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and is a serious international crime.
On March 6 2023, a graphic video started circulating on the internet, where the later identified Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Matsievskyi, unarmed, was standing calmly smoking a cigarette. When Oleksandr says "Slava Ukraini" ("Glory to Ukraine"), Russian soldiers start shooting at him.
