Russia troops accused of ‘executing’ surrendering Ukraine soldiers: Report

Human Rights Watch investigates ‘apparent summary executions’ and says actions could amount to war crimes.

Russian forces appear to have executed Ukrainian soldiers as they attempted to surrender or had already surrendered since December 2023, an international rights group has said in a new report.

The actions should be investigated as war crimes, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in the report published on Thursday.

The group probed five incidents of what it called the “apparent summary executions” of at least 15 Ukrainian soldiers as they attempted to surrender, and possibly six more who were surrendering or who had surrendered between December 2023 and February 2024.

“Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its forces have committed many heinous war crimes,” said Belkis Wille, a senior researcher at HRW.

“The summary execution – or murder – of surrendering and injured Ukrainian soldiers, gunned down in cold blood, expressly forbidden under international humanitarian law, is also included in that shameful legacy.”