Extrajudicial executions, torture and the use of “human shields”. Since the start of the war, both the Russian and Ukrainian sides have committed abuses against prisoners of war, claims the UN monitoring mission in Ukraine.
In a report, the UN observers write that some of the abuses may amount to war crimes.
Matilda Bogner, head of the UN mission in Ukraine, says her team has documented a series of extrajudicial executions of prisoners of war in recent months, often carried out directly on the battlefield. It concerns “up to 25” executions of Russian prisoners carried out by Ukrainian forces, as well as 15 Ukrainian prisoners executed “shortly after capture by Russian armed forces”.
According to Bogner, the paramilitary Wagner group, which claims to be leading Russia’s bloody offensive against Bachmut in eastern Ukraine, is behind eleven of the documented executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The UN report is based on interviews with around 400 prisoners of war, half of them Ukrainians who have been released and half Russians held captive in Ukraine.