Since 2023, the number of cases of Russian soldiers executing Ukrainian prisoners of war has increased. We publish three testimonies of such cases, as executions are among the least-documented deaths in war.
Since Russia’s full scale invasion began in 2022 the United Nations has documented 42 Ukrainian servicemen in captivity being executed, though the real number is likely to be much higher. (Karolina Gushani/The Kyiv Independent).
Warning: This article contains graphic images and descriptions of graphic scenes.
Two thin rubber bracelets in blue-yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian national flag. The colors of Ukraine’s national flag.
The hand was taken from a body belonging to hundreds of Russian soldiers, civilians and troops who were exhumed in September 2022 from a mass grave near Izium in Kharkiv Oblast. At the time, the city had just been liberated. The photo was captured by journalists and spread around the world. It became a symbol for Russian violence and Ukrainian Resistance.
Many believed that the man, who was soon identified as Serhii Sova, a Ukrainian soldier, had been killed in battle. Only one person was aware of the grimmer truth.
Sova’s wife had seen the photos of her husband’s death on Russian Telegram channels months earlier. The photos showed him with his hands behind his back, and a bullet wound to the head. All signs indicated that he was executed in Russian captivity. When his body was discovered near Izium it struck her again.
Oksana says that “my heart and everything in me sank” when she saw the photos of her husband’s tattoos and bracelets in the media.
This story is a vivid example of the recent increase in public reports of executions by Russian forces of Ukrainian soldiers. According to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office cases of executions by Ukrainian soldiers began to increase in 2023.
Since the spring of 2023, videos and photos of brutal killings are more common online. In March 2023, on Telegram, a video showed Russian soldiers shooting an Ukrainian captive soldier after he shouted “Glory Ukraine.” A month later, another video showed Russian soldiers chopping off the head of an Ukrainian soldier while he screamed. A Russian soldier holds the severed head at the end of the film.
In 2024, cases like this will continue to be reported, often accompanied with horrifying videos. Some of them include decapitation or mutilation.
International humanitarian law provides protection to prisoners of war, specifically the 4th Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of War, adopted in 1907. According to the convention killing a prisoner of war is a crime. A soldier is a POW from the moment that he surrenders his weapon, no longer has the means of protection or shows an intention to surrender. This applies to anyone who is under the control of the enemy and rendered defenseless due to unconsciousness, injury or illness.
It is impossible to know the exact number of Ukrainian soldiers who have been executed for being captured. Due to limited access, it is difficult to record and investigate such crimes. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, in 2022 the United Nations has documented 42 Ukrainian servicemen’s execution. Ukraine has documented 102 executions since October 2022. The actual number could be much higher.
Justice is a distant prospect, even for those cases that have been documented. Russia does not investigate or recognize cases of POW executions. The Ukrainian Prosecutor’s General Office has opened 27 inquiries into the killings of POWs. Only three cases have reached court so far. One is being heard in the presence a Russian soldier, and two are being heard in absentia. No verdicts have yet been given.
The Kyiv independent has collected testimony about three executions by Russian troops of Ukrainian soldiers. We received photos of the crimes that the Russian soldiers distributed on Telegram channels soon after the execution. We also received a video shot by Ukrainian military officers using a drone. And we spoke to an eyewitness who was captured and survived abuse while in captivity. Here are their stories.
He’s better off that way
In the early morning of June 1, 2022 in Donetsk Oblast near the village Yarova, Russian artillery opened fire in preparation for an attack on Ukrainian positions. Then, the tanks began to roll in.
Roman Zarudny was a soldier of the National Guard of Ukraine with the callsign “Irishman” who was stationed at the outpost which was attacked first. He was a 32-year-old former clown who joined the military when the full-scale invasion began. He had been fighting less than three months before the attack.
According to his memory, Ukrainian soldiers did not stand a chance during the attacks.
He recalls: “We should have backed off because we had nothing with which to fight.” “I fired one magazine, and then there was smoke, followed by a grenade and a bang. That was the end of my battle.”
Zarudny and two other infantrymen were in the dugout. One of his comrades told them he had been wounded.
He recalled that his comrade had said, “Guys, I believe I’m 300”, using the military code “wounded.” We checked, cut off his clothing, and saw that his knee and elbow had been shot.
As their infantry fighting vehicle moved deeper into village, the Russian fire subsided. The soldiers bandaged the wounded soldier, removed his body armor and thought about their next move. It was too late for a retreat.
Zarudny said, “I had already said goodbye life at that time.”
The Russian troops approached the dugout. Zarudny said that he did not want to be captured, and recalled a fellow comrade echoing his sentiments.
Zarudny threw a hand-grenade.
Zarudny recalled, “I thought – if they got in, I could bring a few with me.”
After a short discussion, they decided surrender. Zarudny remembers that a Russian Soldier saw the grenade he was holding, warned him to not use it and took it away.
The Russian soldiers then noticed the wounded soldier.
Zarudny remembered that a Russian soldier cocked the Kalashnikov and fired two shots. “Then he said, ‘Don’t get it wrong.'” His legs were broken. I did it to make him not suffer. He’s better this way.”
The Russian soldiers took two other soldiers as prisoners. Zarudny, who was taken prisoner by the Russian soldiers, was released through a prisoner swap a year and half later in January 2024. The second soldier remains officially listed as a Prisoner. The third soldier is officially listed as missing.
His family is still searching, hoping for the very best, for his body. Soldiers from Zarudny’s brigade, who fought with the Kulchytsky Battalion on June 1, 2022 confirmed the dramatic turn in events that day.
It was an execution
This is one of the most well-known photos of Russia’s invasion.
After the liberation in September 2022 of Kharkiv Oblast a large burial ground was discovered in the forest near Izium. It contained the bodies of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers who were killed by the Russians. Ukrainian authorities began exhuming the bodies shortly after.
The media at the site were drawn to one of the exhumed bodies: its half-decomposed arm was wearing a rubber wristband in the colors of Ukraine’s national flag. The photo was circulated around the world.
Oksana, a resident of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from Nikopol, recognized Serhii, a 35-year-old serviceman, in the photos.
By then, he was officially listed as missing since April 19, 2022, almost five months.
Oksana knew her husband had died when the body was discovered in September.
Oksana never told anyone how she learned what happened to her husband. She has also never spoken about her feelings in the days following her husband’s disappearance.
“I checked Russian Telegram channels every day, looking for prisoners and the dead,” she recalls. “After a week, in May, I finally found what I was searching for.”
Oksana was scrolling through Telegram channels when she came across familiar features. In the picture, her husband had his hands behind his back and was stripped to the waist. A gaping gunshot hole was visible in the back of her husband’s head.
The nature of the picture, the lack of clothes, and the tied hands all pointed out that Russian soldiers had already killed Serhii, who should have been protected under the POW status.
Oksana explains, “It was taken after his execution.”
“In the picture, he looked very thin — my spouse was never that skinny.” I kept looking… It was hard in the beginning. I noticed that the bastards took everything. “There were no silver chains to go with the pendants that I had given him. No belt, no boot.”
The soldier was easily identifiable by the photo, which showed his face and tattoos on his body — an owl and a samurai. Near Serhii, there was at least another dead man with his hands tied behind him and a tee shirt pulled over his head.
Later, the photos documenting this crime were deleted from Russian Telegram channels. They had posted them along with other pictures of captured and executed Ukrainians with a call to surrender to survive. Oksana deleted the photos later from her phone for fear that her children might accidentally find them. Friends of Serhii, however, saved screenshots of Serhii’s posts and shared them to the Kyiv Independent.
His comrades who were able to escape in time, recount the events of the battle that led to Serhii’s capture. In April 2022 the 3rd Company, 1st Battalion, 93rd Brigade, was positioned in tree-line positions near the villages of Sulyhivka Dibrivne and Nova Dmytrivka, in the Izium District of Kharkiv Oblast. This location is approximately 50 kilometers away from where Serhii’s body was found in September.
“We held the defence there for two weeks and then tried to break through. On April 19, around 2 a.m. we were told to retreat as we were being circled. We moved to another treeline,” recalls Yurii (callsign “Pavuk”), who was then a squad leader of the 3rd Company and 3rd Platoon of the 1st Battalion, 93rd Brigade.
He recalls how the Russian troops saw them and advanced brazenly. Artillery from all directions caused them to scatter, before the enemy tanks arrived. Serhii was located about 100 meters away from Yurii and closer to the road.
He says that the Russians destroyed everything they saw with tanks and armored vehicles. He knows only two men who were captured that day. “Everyone who was there died.” About 40 people were there. All of this happened in just four hours.
According to the Russians, who published photographic evidence on Telegram, Serhii was not only unharmed but also survived this heavy battle. However, he was executed by Russian soldiers. According to Kyiv Independent sources, Serhii’s unit was the 93rd Brigade and the Russian troops stationed there were from the 4th Tank Kantemirovskaya Division.
Oksana believes that it is important to establish the truth about her loved one’s death and to remember him in a dignified manner. Oksana had been with Serhii for 17 years. They ran a business together that specialized in dog training. He was a former boxer who had served in the Ukrainian Army. He left behind two kids: a son named Marat, who is now 16 years old, and a girl named Elina, aged 11 years old.
“Seventeen Years of our Life Together. These were the best of my life and I’m grateful that he was my spouse. He loved us a lot; we were his life, and he spent every free moment with us.”
Aerial footage has captured many testimonies about the execution of prisoners in this war. According to our sources in the brigade The Kyiv independent obtained a video dated February 18, 2024, which was shot in the trenches in Zaporizhzhia Oblast between the villages Robotyne & Verbove. It shows two unarmed 82nd Separate Air Assault Brigade soldiers walking near the trenches, before they are shot by an automatic weapon moments later.
“During the battle the Russians killed our two guys. Two others survived. When the Russians entered our guys raised their arms, but the Russians murdered them,” said an eyewitness who witnessed what happened on that day while watching a live drone broadcast.
Spreading fear
Executions on the battlefield are among the least-documented deaths in war. This crime is rarely witnessed. Drones or killers may record such cases.
“This has been a practice in the Russian Army since the (Second Chechen War. They did this in many of the conflicts in which they took part. Volodymyr Yvorskyi is the program director at the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, which won a Nobel Prize. He believes that this is an organized practice and is aimed at a couple of aspects. He believes it’s all to spread fear: firstly, among those already on the frontlines that they will almost certainly die and should retreat. Second, those who will be expected to mobilize. “A person who sees this thinks that mobilization will lead to death,” he said.
According to practice, the decision whether or not to take a prisoner into battle depends on a variety of factors, said a 47 year old major in Ukraine’s Armed Forces. We identify him only as “Karay”, because he does not have official permission for commenting on this issue. “Karay” witnessed many cruel acts during his 10 years of service in the Ukraine war with various brigades.
“Prisoners are executed when a group does not have the time to guard and evacuate prisoners or if they do not want to. “There are more professional soldiers.” They see war as work and avoid emotions.
On the other side, there are Russian units such as the “Rusich Sabotage-Assault Reconnaissance Group” that publicly declares they do not take any prisoners. They were the ones to publish the video showing the head-cutting of a Ukrainian soldier.
“In some units,” “Karay,” said, “Russian commanders practice involving soldiers in executions. This includes demonstrating brutality. The goal is to bind “team” to blood and crimes, so that soldiers will fight until the end and not surrender to Ukrainians.”
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