UN condemns Russia AND Ukraine for carrying out 'summary executions'

UN condemns Russia AND Ukraine for carrying out ‘summary executions’ of prisoners

• UN said it was ‘deeply concerned by summary executions of prisoners of war’
• Up to 25 Russian POWs and 15 Ukrainian POWs allegedly killed by enemy forces 

The United Nations said Friday it was ‘deeply concerned’ by what it described as summary executions of prisoners of war carried out by Russian and Ukrainian forces on the battlefield.

The head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said her organisation had documented the killings of ‘up to 25 Russian prisoners of war’ by Ukrainian armed forces as well as ‘the summary execution of 15 Ukrainian prisoners of war shortly after being captured by Russian armed forces’.

Several execution videos of prisoners of war (POWs) shared on social media have shocked the world since the war started.

Just last month, in February, a convicted murderer released from prison to fight for Russia’s Wagner group reportedly became the second mercenary to be beaten to death with a sledgehammer after defecting to Ukraine.

Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44, had his head taped to a what appears to be a pile of bricks with cling film before being apparently bludgeoned to death with the sledgehammer in a horrifying execution that was filmed and published on messaging app Telegram. 

Dmitry Yakushchenko, 44, had his head taped to bricks with clingfilm before being bludgeoned to death with the sledgehammer in a harrowing ordeal that was filmed and published online after he was accused of ‘treason’ for defecting to Ukraine after arriving on front line

Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, had his head taped to a brick wall and was subsequently beaten to death with the sledgehammer in November 2022 when he was recaptured by his former colleagues, in a harrowing ordeal that was filmed and circulated on the Telegram messaging app 

Yakushchenko was accused of treason for deserting after arriving on the front line. He was later recaptured by his former Wagner colleagues, who went on to execute him. 

The 44-year-old is now reportedly the second Wagner fighter to be executed with a sledgehammer after convicted murderer Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, was killed by his countrymen in November last year.

However, the authenticity of the execution was cast into doubt after it appeared the video may have been staged by the Wagner private military to look exactly like the one carried out on Nuzhin.

Nuzhin had his head taped to a brick wall and was subsequently beaten to death with the sledgehammer in November 2022 when he was recaptured by his former colleagues, in a harrowing ordeal that was filmed and circulated on the Telegram messaging app.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and founder of the infamous Wagner private military company (PMC), said on Sunday that ‘a dog receives a dog’s death’ in response to the clip. 

At the beginning of March, a video shared on Telegram showed a man, said to be a Ukrainian prisoner of war, taking one last drag from a cigarette next to a shallow grave before reportedly being executed by Russian troops.

The chilling video has emerged as Kyiv described the death of the soldier as a ‘heinous war crime’. He has since been named as Oleksandr Matsievskyi. 

The man, believed to be a Ukrainian prisoner of war called Oleksandr Matsievskyi, is seen smoking a cigarette in a small hole in the ground. The footage was condemned by Ukraine’s foreign minister

In the grim footage, a man – who can be seen smoking a cigarette in a small hole in the ground – says ‘Glory to Ukraine’ while unseen soldiers are heard sneering in the background.

He is then shot to death with automatic weapons in what some Ukrainian politicians have said is proof of ‘genocide.’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address: ‘Today, a video appeared of the occupiers brutally killing a soldier, who bravely said to their faces: “Glory to Ukraine!”.’

But as the report by the UN shows, it’s not just the Russians that are accused of killings prisoners of war.

In a video published in April last year, Ukrainian soldiers were seen killing their apparently captured Russian counterparts with their hands tied behind their backs.

The video, which the New York Times verified, shows Ukrainian troops committing the killings, after what appeared to be an ambush outside a village west of Kyiv.

‘He’s still alive,’ one of the Ukrainians – identifiable by their flag patches and ‘glory to Ukraine’ paraphernalia – can be heard saying, as a Russian soldier is seen with a jacket pulled over his head. ‘Film these marauders. Look, he’s still alive. He’s gasping.’

One of the soldiers then shot the man three times. After the second shot, the man kept moving but stopped after the third bullet. 

In the video there appear to be at least three other Russian soldiers dead lying near the latest victim, all wearing camouflage and three with white arm bands typically worn by Russian military units.

‘He’s still alive,’ one of the Ukrainians – identifiable by their flag patches and ‘glory to Ukraine’ paraphernalia – can be heard saying, as a Russian soldier is seen with a jacket pulled over his head. ‘Film these marauders. Look, he’s still alive. He’s gasping’

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