- October 14, 2024
- 12:22 am
- Ukraine
October 10, 2024 Russian military committed another brutal war crime by shooting 9 Ukrainian soldiers who were captured in the Kursk region.
This was reported on Sunday, October 13 by the analytical DeepState portalciting sources in the 1st separate tank brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
According to representatives of the brigade, the Russians shot “drone operators and subcontractors” in the area of the village of Zeleny Put.
The Ukrainian military entered the positions with the opinion that they were in relative rear, but were forced to engage in battle with the Russians and fired back, but the amount of combat equipment was limited and they were forced to surrender, writes DeepState.
Although they were forced to surrender, this did not prevent them from being killed.
This case is not the only one. Earlier, on October 6, in the Donetsk region, Russian occupiers shot three Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in the New York area. And on October 1, it became known about the execution of 16 Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Pokrovsky direction. These crimes demonstrate Russia's systematic violation of international humanitarian law, especially the Geneva Conventions, which require humane treatment of prisoners.
As Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets noted, this case is “another gross violation of the Geneva Convention” and emphasizes that Russia continues to behave like a terrorist state.
“These actions cannot go unpunished, and the enemy must bear full responsibility,”
– Lubinets said, adding that he sent relevant appeals to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross demanding that they investigate this case.
The Russian side, as usual, did not comment on the incident, but well-known Russian propaganda channels began to look for excuses. As military expert Alexander Kovalenko notes, propaganda is trying to distort reality by claiming that Ukrainian soldiers allegedly resisted themselves, despite the fact that they were disarmed.
“Statements that the prisoners could have resisted are full of lies. The photographs show that all the dead are lying face down, with their hands behind their heads, which clearly refutes such allegations,” writes Kovalenko.
This incident is just one of many war crimes that Russia is committing in the occupied territories. According to the head of the department for combating crimes committed in armed conflict, Yuri Belousov, more than 93 cases of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war have already been recorded, with 80% of them occurring in 2024. This highlights the brutality and barbarism with which Russian forces are waging war.
In addition, these acts are aimed not only at intimidating the Ukrainian military, but also at provocation. As Kovalenko writes,
“Russia is trying to provoke retaliatory actions from Ukraine in order to then accuse it of war crimes in the international arena.”
Such actions are a clear attempt to undermine international norms and create an atmosphere of terror and fear.
The international community must intensify its efforts to hold Russia accountable for such crimes. The Geneva Conventions and international law exist to protect soldiers and civilians in times of war, and Russia's flagrant violation of them requires decisive action by the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations.
Russian war crimes must not go unanswered. The global community must take strong action to ensure that such atrocities never happen again.
