Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman has denounced accusations that Russian forces executed nine Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk border area.
Dmytro Lubinets said he had written to the United Nations and the Red Cross about the allegations, accusing Moscow of violating “all the rules and customs of war”.
The intervention follows a report by Ukrainian human rights organization DeepState, which released drone footage purporting to show dead soldiers it said were operators. control unmanned aircraft. Officials in Russia have yet to comment on the allegation.
Kyiv is believed to have deployed thousands of soldiers into Russia’s border areas since it launched a shocking attack earlier this summer.
Images released by DeepState show dead Ukrainian soldiers stripped naked and lying face down in what appears to be farmland in Kursk. The BBC cannot independently verify these images.
The newspaper said drone operators were quickly attacked by Russia’s rapid advance.
“These actions cannot go unpunished and the enemy must bear full responsibility,” Mr. Lubinets wrote in a message to Telegram. “The international community should not turn a blind eye to such crimes!”
Kyiv regularly accuses Russia of executing captured Ukrainian soldiers – a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Earlier this month, the prosecutor general’s office accused Russian forces of executing 93 Ukrainian soldiers since the start of the conflict.
It added that an official investigation had been opened into reports that 16 Ukrainian soldiers were executed in the eastern Donetsk region near the city of Pokrovsk – where fighting has raged for months. Officials said the reports would mark the “largest mass execution” of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian military since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.
The Kremlin denies its soldiers committed war crimes in Ukraine.
This information was given in the context of Russian forces continuing to attack Ukrainian positions in Kursk. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address from Kyiv on Saturday that Ukraine’s military had repelled a new Russian advance in the region.
Analysts say Kyiv launched the offensive to try to force Russia to divert some troops from its offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimates that about 40,000 Russian troops are currently operating in Kursk – up from 11,000 when Ukrainian troops first crossed the border.
But the offensive has failed to slow Russia’s advance in the eastern Donbas region, where relentless attacks have gradually pushed Ukrainian forces back.
The Ukrainian leader admitted that “there are very difficult conditions with harsh enemy actions” in both Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia in his speech on Saturday.
On Sunday morning, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces had captured the village of Mykhaidivka, located along the highway near the key city of Pokrovsk.
Russian forces have been advancing on Pokrovsk – a key logistics hub – for months. Experts say that if Russia can capture this city, the ability to supply units in other important Ukrainian towns will become much more difficult.
Meanwhile, Russian aerial attacks on Ukraine continued into the night. Air force officials in Kiev said Moscow launched 68 drones and four missiles toward Ukrainian territory.
