A video has emerged from eastern Ukraine showing a group of Russian soldiers putting their hands up in surrender, but are shot to death. Russia has accused Ukraine of executing Russian prisoners of war. Ukraine has not yet responded to the allegations.
The incident occurred around November 12 at Makiyivka, a village in Luhansk. Part of the footage appears in a video posted online by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence about military operations in Makiyivka.
Some social media posts suggest a mortar strike was responsible. But pro-Russian outlets claim the soldiers were shot from Ukraine’s 80th airborne assault brigade. More footage appeared on November 17, filmed from ground level by someone at scene. Shouting can be heard in Ukrainian for anyone hiding inside a shed to come out. They emerge one by one and lie down on the ground.
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Voices can be heard asking if everyone is out. The captors speak Ukrainian in the video, while the uniforms of the captives look Russian, not Ukrainian. The Russian defence ministry and media have also said the prisoners are Russian.
This video then shows a man dressed in dark clothing, armed and to open fire. The camera then falls away as gunfire rings out, and the video ends. The aerial footage (from the drone) and the video filmed on the ground appear to match the scene. An entrance doorway, with what looks like a pole lying on it, is visible as well as what looks like a red toy car in the farmyard.
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Russia’s defence ministry has denounced the incident as a “deliberate and methodical murder” about the shots to the head of more than 10 immobilised Russian servicemen. The statement by the ministry adds that it is “not the first and not the only war crime” by Ukrainian forces.
A day before, terrifying footage showed commuters were shaken as Russian missiles rained down on the city of Dnipro in Ukraine on Thursday. A ball of flames can be seen rising from a street filled with traffic in the city in footage shared by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
