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Russia Executed at Least 345 Surrendered Soldiers and Killed 375 Ukrainians in Captivity
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Russian forces have executed at least 345 Ukrainian service members who surrendered and killed 375 Ukrainian citizens whose deaths in Russian captivity have been verified.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets made the statement during a press conference at Ukrinform focused on Russian disinformation concerning prisoners of war, exchanges, and people missing in action.
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According to the ombudsman, the 345 documented executions involved Ukrainian soldiers who had clearly surrendered, including by laying down their weapons, raising their hands, or lying on the ground to demonstrate that they were no longer taking part in hostilities.
He added that Russian troops would inspect the surrendered soldiers and, in some documented cases, order them to remove their clothing before shooting them at close range.
Lubinets stressed that the killing of service members who have surrendered constitutes a separate war crime.
He also said that Ukraine has a separate list of 375 Ukrainian citizens whose deaths in Russian captivity have been verified.
“These are Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees who were verified as military or civilian detainees held by the Russian Federation. Some were also verified through the international verification mechanism of the International Committee of the Red Cross. All of them returned home on shields, meaning that the Russian Federation handed over the bodies of 375 Ukrainian citizens who had been tortured to death,” Lubinets said.
The ombudsman said Russia had established a system in which torture, humiliation, and unlawful convictions are used as instruments of war.
“We call this system the ‘Moscow conventions.’ This is not a legal term, but a definition of Russian practices of treating Ukrainians: under these ‘conventions,’ instead of protection there is torture, instead of medical assistance there is suffering, instead of justice there are show trials, and instead of returning home there are years of captivity or death,” Lubinets said.
According to the ombudsman, Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia are subjected to virtually all forms of torture outlined in the Istanbul Protocol.
Lubinets said Ukrainian authorities had documented 695 forms of torture used against Ukrainian POWs and civilian detainees, as well as 860 cases of improper detention conditions.
He added that 95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war had experienced torture, which he described as systematic in Russian detention facilities.
Against this backdrop, Russian forces have established a specialized combat brigade made up of Ukrainian prisoners of war and Ukrainians coerced into defecting.
Forcing prisoners of war into military service would violate international law governing the treatment of captives. The reported use of POWs for military purposes also follows broader patterns of coercion and abuse documented in Russian detention facilities, where Ukrainian captives have reported systematic torture, deliberate deprivation of food, and other forms of physical and psychological abuse.
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