Russians Subject Ukrainian POWs to Execution and Incredible Torture

There are no adjectives and superlatives left to describe russians’ crimes and brutality against Ukrainians.

Civilization has already been exposed to russian cutthroats’ rape and murder of women and girls of all ages.

Now execution of prisoners of war, beheadings, body mutilation and even needles under fingernails have become the latest blood-curdling hallmark of torturing Ukrainian soldiers as russians strive to subjugate and annihilate all Ukrainians.

According to the United Nations and other sources, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights “verified three of these incidents in which Russian servicemen executed seven Ukrainian servicemen hors de combat,” reads the latest UN report on the human rights situation in Ukraine published earlier this year.

A UN commission of inquiry on Ukraine said last month that it had gathered more evidence that Russia has systematically tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war, documenting rape threats and the use of electric shocks on genitals.

The three-member Commission of Inquiry said in a report that the scale of such torture cases may amount to the most serious abuses known as crimes against humanity, describing their occurrence as “widespread and systematic.”

“Victims’ accounts disclose relentless brutal treatment inflicting severe pain and suffering during prolonged detention, with blatant disregard for human dignity,” the chair of the commission, Erik Møse, told reporters in Geneva.

The report has been submitted to the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, which will decide in its current session whether to renew the commission’s mandate for another year.

From December to February of this yar, as invading Russian forces were rapidly advancing in Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region, and attempting to recapture Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region, dozens of execution videos were posted on social media.

In eight of the reported cases, videos showed Russian servicemen killing Ukrainian POWs who had laid down their weapons or using other captured Ukrainian POWs as human shields.

“As of 29 February 2024, OHCHR had obtained corroborating information for one of the videos,” the report reads. “In that video, what appears to be a group of armed Russian soldiers stands 15-20 meters behind three Ukrainian servicemen who are kneeling with their hands behind their heads. After a few seconds, smoke appears from the Russian soldiers’ weapons and the Ukrainian servicemen fall to the ground.”

“One of the armed soldiers then approaches the bodies and shoots at one of the soldiers lying on the ground,” according to the report.

Over the winter Russia also released 60 Ukrainian POWs. One of them confirmed to OHCHR that the incident featured in the video took place near Robotyne in December 2023 and that the killed servicemen were from his unit.

In another incident, three Ukrainian POWs, captured by Russian troops, were executed at the beginning of January 2024 in Zaporizhzhia.

“According to a witness, two Ukrainian soldiers were executed on the spot after their surrender. Russian servicemen killed a third Ukrainian POW who had been injured by a mine while being forced by the Russian servicemen to conduct demining work,” the report states.

Russian forces are also amputating the hands and arms of Ukrainian prisoners to ensure they cannot fight when they are handed back to Kyiv.

The revelation comes ahead of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry report, which is expected to be scathing about the “horrific” treatment of Ukrainian Prisoners of War by Russian security services at detention centers in Russia and occupied Ukraine.

At least 70 captured Ukrainian soldiers are said to have had limbs deliberately severed.

Describing a visit to see Ukrainian veterans at the Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics in Silver Spring, Maryland, in the British Sunday Express, Lord Ashcroft told how one Ukrainian soldier had been captured by Wagner mercenaries who “amputated both his arms above the elbows in the most haphazard way before making fun of him.” Lord Ashcroft added: “He later had to watch his comrades being tortured.”

Last year Russian commanders were accused of horrific atrocities, including beheading Ukrainians and making them drink petrol before setting fire to them.

Speaking on the social media platform Telegram “Dmytro,” an officer who said he was captured five months ago before being released in a prisoner exchange, revealed the barbaric action of his captors who ordered surgeons to cut off his arms.

“The medical procedure was awful, my arms are a mess, they cut both off,” he said.

“They told us you will not fight again. It is clear they want to overwhelm Ukraine with disabled soldiers.”

In an callous gesture of inhumanity, a highly decorated russian colonel, who was accused of ordering the execution of three unarmed and surrendering Ukrainian prisoners of war, was personally honored by putin.

The disturbing case has been reported to the United Nations by Kyiv’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lyubinets. Graphic footage shows russian servicemen in Krynky killing unarmed, immobile soldiers with an assault rifle.

The Ukrainian investigative outlet evocation.info has revealed that Hero of Russia Lt. Col. Sergei Ishtuganov, 37, gave the order to kill unarmed Ukrainian POWs and commit war crimes. He once told Putin he was fighting against “Nazi scum” in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials believe this is an attempt to intimidate Ukrainians so that they do not resist. And this fits into the general outline of russia’s policy of subjugating the Ukrainian people. It's an attempt to force Ukrainians to surrender through violence, executions, and deportation of our citizens.

The Red Cross has confirmed the identities of 5,000 Ukrainians in Russian captivity. But tens of thousands of people, both civilians and prisoners of war, remain missing, Ukrainian officials say.

More than 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers with life-changing injuries are undergoing treatment and rehabilitation across Europe via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.