Kyiv says Russian forces shot surrendering Ukrainian soldiers

Kyiv: Ukrainian officials on Sunday accused Russian forces of killing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers, a war crime if confirmed, after grainy footage on social media appeared to show two uniformed men being shot at close range after emerging from a dugout.

The video shows the servicemen, one of them with his hands up, walking out at gunpoint and

lying down on the ground before a group of Russian troops appears to open fire. It was not immediately possible to verify the video’s authenticity or the circumstances in which it was taken.

The Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s office on Sunday launched a criminal investigation, hours after the Ukrainian military’s press office said in an online statement that the footage is genuine.

“The video shows a group in Russian uniforms shooting, at point-blank range, two unarmed servicemen in the uniform of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who were surrendering,” the prosecutor’s office said in a Telegram update on Sunday.

Kyiv, its Western allies and international human rights organizations have repeatedly accused Moscow of breaching international humanitarian

law since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin denies these allegations.

The video first appeared Saturday on DeepState, a popular Ukrainian Telegram channel covering the war.

The post claimed the footage came from the front lines near Avdiivka, a Ukrainian holdout in the country’s part-occupied east where there has been fierce fighting in recent weeks.