Ukraine War: Russian forces accused of shooting surrendering Ukrainian soldiers

Following the appearance on social media of a blurry video purporting to show multiple soldiers murdering two military members who were surrendering at gunpoint as they emerged from a dugout, Kyiv officials accused Moscow of committing a war crime.

One soldier can be seen in the unconfirmed footage lying on the ground after emerging with his hands raised from a foxhole on the battlefield. Another soldier staggers out and collapses as well. The footage suddenly seems to cease when the Russian soldiers start firing.

The Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office said: “The video shows a group of people in Russian uniforms shooting, at point-blank range, two unarmed servicemen in the uniform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who were surrendering.”

The video was shared on the well-known Ukrainian war blog Deepstate. According to the blog, the tape was taken close to Stepove on the Avdiivka front line in the Donetsk area.

The incident happened in Pokrovsk district, a sizable portion of the Donetsk region that runs near to Avdiivka, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in recent weeks, according to the General Prosecutor’s Office.

Speaking to the Ukrainska Pravda news website, Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Tavria military command, described the footage as “glaring confirmation” that Russia consistently breaks the rules of warfare.

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(With agency inputs)