Editor’s Note: This story contains images and descriptions of violence that are graphic.
The troops emerge and stagger into the middle of the dusty track, then onto their knees, their hands placed on their heads. Seconds later, the Ukrainian drone footage shows, they lie face down, motionless, dust trailing nearby.
Video obtained exclusively by CNN, filmed during fighting late August near the embattled city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, shows an apparent execution by Russian troops of three surrendering Ukrainians, after their trench was overrun.
The incident, described by a Ukrainian official who asked for some details to be withheld to protect the identity of the unit, is part of a pattern of apparent executions, seemingly increasing in pace this year.
Ukrainian defense intelligence sources have given CNN a list of 15 cases since November, most supported by drone video or audio intercepts, in which they say surrendering Ukrainian troops were killed by the Russians on the front lines, rather than being taken prisoner.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general told CNN his office was investigating 28 such incidents since the start of the war, in which a total of 62 Ukrainian servicemembers had died.
The footage from Pokrovsk region appears to reflect the relentlessly brutal tactics of the Russian military as they continue to advance in Ukraine’s east.
Moscow’s grind towards the Ukrainian strategic military hub of Pokrovsk has continued, despite Kyiv’s recent gains in the Russian border region of Kursk fueling hopes the Kremlin would be forced to divert troops to defend Russia’s own borders.
Ukrainian prosecutors told CNN they believe the alleged killings are war crimes and part of an orchestrated policy by the Kremlin. “If prisoners of war surrender, if they show that they surrender, if they are without weapons in their hands, then summary execution is a war crime,” Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, told CNN.
Kostin argued that such crimes had been committed in different areas of Ukraine, by a variety of units, giving Kyiv “an opportunity to claim that such policy could be (elevated) to crimes against humanity. This policy is orchestrated by Kremlin. It’s an order of specific commanders.”
The Russian Ministry of Defense has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment on the allegations.
The emergence of videos showing what appears to be a growing Russian tactic has presented a dilemma for Ukrainian commanders, who face the unenviable task of warning their troops and the world of Russian savagery, at the risk of sapping already drained Ukrainian morale.
The Ukrainian official who provided the Pokrovsk drone footage said their unit was aware of multiple similar cases on the front lines that had not been publicized or investigated.
Some recent cases have been made public, with one unit in Toretsk claiming on Telegram it had drone video, which it published Tuesday, of three Ukrainian troops emerging from a basement, their hands raised in surrender, and then being gunned down by Russian troops. Prosecutors in the Donetsk region said they had opened an investigation into the “violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder.”
Several Russian servicemen have been put on trial accused of such killings, including one in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian prosecutors allege the Russian was a convict, released from his sentence for theft in November to serve in the Russian military’s 127th motorised rifle division. Prosecutors have released drone footage supporting their claim the Russian shot a Ukrainian soldier in January as he emerged, arms raised, from his trench near Priyutne and then knelt.
CNN has obtained another drone video, also from Zaporizhzhia region, showing how in May this year, near the heavily contested village of Robotyne, Russian troops told three Ukrainian soldiers to lie face down after their dugout was overrun. Ukraine’s defence intelligence has given CNN audio transcripts of intercepts of what it says was the order from a Russian commander, known as “Turk,” to his subordinate in the field, “Maloy,” to kill the prisoners.
TURK: Take them f**king down, f***king zero them, zero them.
MALOY: Got it, copy.
TURK: Once you zero them, report back.
The drone video shows how, once all three Ukrainians are out of the trench and lying face down, the Russians fire.
While Russian President Vladimir Putin is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over his role in an alleged scheme to forcibly deport Ukrainian children to Russia, Kyiv is aggressively pursuing claims of genocide against Moscow. Kostin, the prosecutor general, suggested the systematic nature of these alleged battlefield executions meant they could become part of the wider genocide case.
The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz, visited Ukraine in May at the invitation of Kyiv, in part to examine reports of extrajudicial killings in combat.
A UN investigative source told CNN some of the apparent executions of Ukrainian soldiers had been subject to their examination. “There are many. There is a pattern. It suggests complacency, if not orders to give no quarter,” the source said, referring to the practice of showing no mercy.
“The killings are war crimes individually,” the source said, “and together could amount to crimes against humanity.”
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