On a Monday morning final fall, Ukrainian drone pilots watched what had turn out to be a well-known scene unfold on a drone’s stay feed: Russian troopers pointed their weapons at two Ukrainians, who seemingly surrendered. Then, the footage confirmed, the Russians shot them level clean.
The video, supplied by a pilot who stated he had witnessed the killing on the feed, was verified by The New York Instances and the Centre for Info Resilience, a nonprofit group. It appeared to indicate the Ukrainian prisoners executed close to the village of Novoivanovka within the Kursk area of Russia.
“There have been no well mannered phrases spoken amongst us — we had been crammed with rage and an intense want for revenge,” stated the pilot, 26, who served with the fifteenth Cell Border Guard and requested to be recognized by his name signal of “One Two” in accordance with army protocol.
As the US embraces Russian speaking factors in its push for a cease-fire in Ukraine, many Ukrainians ponder whether allegations of Russian warfare crimes will merely be forgotten. President Trump has indicated that he want to re-establish ties with Russia and finish the warfare — or at the least, wind down the U.S. dedication to Ukraine made beneath President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The U.S. informed European officials lately that it’s withdrawing from a multinational group created to analyze allegations of warfare crimes in opposition to senior Russian leaders and allies chargeable for launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Biden administration joined the group in 2023. The U.S. State Division has additionally ended funding for the tracking of tens of thousands of Ukrainian youngsters abducted by Russia.
Whereas each sides have been accused of committing warfare crimes, Russia has confronted way more allegations, not solely from Ukraine but in addition human-rights teams and the United Nations. In current months, Ukrainian and worldwide human-rights officers have accused Russian troops of executing Ukrainian troopers who’ve surrendered as an alternative of taking them as prisoners of warfare, as required beneath the Geneva Conventions treaties that define how nations ought to deal with enemy forces and civilians throughout armed battle.
A current U.N. report decried an “alarming spike” in Russian executions of Ukrainian prisoners. In December, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman workplace introduced that 177 Ukrainian prisoners of warfare had been executed on the battlefield because the starting of the warfare; of these, 109 had been killed in 2024 alone. Russians have killed at the least 25 extra Ukrainian troopers since then, in keeping with Artem Starosiek, who runs Molfar, a Ukrainian consultancy that helps the warfare effort and analyzed movies to provide you with that tally. The Instances couldn’t independently confirm that depend.
“This could possibly be one of many largest campaigns of intentional P.O.W. homicide in trendy historical past,” Ukraine’s international minister, Andrii Sybiha, said in February.
The Russian Protection Ministry didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the Ukrainian allegations, though the Kremlin has repeatedly denied that Russia commits warfare crimes in Ukraine.
5 Ukrainian drone pilots stated in interviews that that they had watched as drone movies confirmed their fellow troopers surrendering, solely to be killed. On Telegram, such movies have turn out to be commonplace. Though Russian officers have denied committing warfare crimes in Ukraine, some Russian troopers seem so unconcerned about potential repercussions that they’ve posted their very own movies of killing unarmed Ukrainians.
In previous conflicts, warfare crimes normally occurred out of sight, solely to be revealed later by investigations. However drones imply that these executions may be tracked in actual time: Grainy footage confirmed as many as 16 males, lined up and shot lifeless Sept. 30, after surrendering close to the jap Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, in keeping with the Ukrainian prosecutor basic’s workplace. 9 Ukrainian drone operators had been pressured to strip to their underwear and lie face down on the bottom in Kursk earlier than being shot Oct. 10 — the footage was so clear, a mom of 1 man later acknowledged him.
Some perpetrators movie the movies themselves — like one posted in January that circulated extensively on social media and appeared to indicate the executions of six Ukrainian soldiers close to Donetsk, the Ukrainian prosecutor basic’s workplace stated.
“One’s mine,” one Russian stated on the video.
“Movie me on digicam, rattling it,” one other added.
The video ended with a seventh Ukrainian on the bottom, his destiny unclear.
Though the video’s location couldn’t be independently verified, the boys killed within the video wore yellow armbands, like Ukrainian forces are identified to. One soldier concerned was recognized by open source researchers, and later The Financial Times, as a Russian named Oleg Yakovlev.
Because the finish of August, the U.N. human-rights monitoring mission in Ukraine has documented 29 encounters wherein Russian troopers killed at the least 91 incapacitated Ukrainian troopers, together with the episode witnessed by One Two. Human-rights screens analyzed movies and images printed by Ukrainian and Russian sources displaying executions and lifeless our bodies, interviewed witnesses and verified that the reported executions occurred close to Russian offensives, stated Danielle Bell, the pinnacle of the mission.
“It’s horrible,” Ms. Bell stated in an interview. “And these are simply the circumstances that we now have assessed as being credible and dependable.”
Throughout those self same six months, the United Nations documented one execution of an incapacitated Russian soldier by Ukrainian troops, Ms. Bell stated.
She wouldn’t speculate on why the variety of killings has elevated. However in August, Ukrainian troopers invaded Kursk, probably sparking retaliation. Some army analysts stated the Russians could possibly be making an attempt to intimidate potential Ukrainian recruits from becoming a member of the military and make Russian troopers suppose twice earlier than surrendering — as a result of the Ukrainians would possibly need revenge.
Russian troopers captured after executing Ukrainian troops stated in interrogations that they had been ordered to kill them — even after telling commanders that the Ukrainians had surrendered and tossed their weapons on the bottom, in keeping with an edited video of the interrogations launched lately by the Ukrainian Particular Forces.
The Ukrainians apparently started to run “after listening to the command over the radio to open fireplace,” one captured Russian stated within the video. He added: “And fireplace was opened on them.”
In mid-March, as Russian forces sought to retake Kursk, a photograph circulated of a number of Ukrainian prisoners of warfare with their palms behind their backs. One other video, which couldn’t be independently verified, confirmed the identical prisoners, now lifeless, with three of them bleeding from the backs of their heads. The particular person filming used slurs to confer with them as he counted the corpses for the digicam.
The orders are more likely to come from the highest, analysts stated. The deputy head of Russia’s Safety Council — Dmitri Medvedev, the previous president — stated that Ukrainian troopers had no proper to life or mercy after Ukraine’s Azov Brigade posted a video of a soldier taking pictures what gave the impression to be an injured Russian soldier on social media in July. “Execute, execute and execute,” Mr. Medvedev wrote on Telegram.
In October, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War stated: “Russian commanders are seemingly writ giant condoning, encouraging, or immediately ordering the execution of Ukrainian P.O.W.s.”
When drone pilots have seen the Russians pointing their weapons on the Ukrainians on video, the pilots stated, they typically went quiet watching their comrades get shot. Then they swore.
One commander stated one scene nonetheless haunted him: A Russian soldier shot 4 Ukrainian troopers mendacity face down in a trench close to Chasiv Yar, and he might do nothing to cease it. “With out hesitation, he executed all of them,” stated the commander, who makes use of the decision signal “Madara,” for a Japanese manga hero.
In one other video, Russians surrounded 4 injured Ukrainians, pressured them out of their shelter right into a yard and confiscated their weapons. The Russians then took three of the troopers to the road and shot them, stated one army intelligence officer from the a hundred and tenth Brigade with the decision signal of “Grandfather.” It was considered one of three executions of Ukrainian troopers within the Donetsk area he had watched on video feeds from drones at a command put up over the previous yr.
“The worst half was the helplessness — we couldn’t do something to assist our males,” Grandfather stated.
After seeing the Ukrainian troopers killed on the morning of Nov. 11, One Two stated commanders wished the drone pilots to retaliate. The pilots of three models met on a video name. One Ukrainian drone tracked 5 Russians — the 2 who shot the Ukrainians, and the three who stood by — and gave a stay feed of their actions into the forest. Ten different drones adopted, surrounding the 5 Russians. After which, One Two stated, the drone pilots fired their weapons and killed them.
Marc Santora, Oleksandra Mykolyshyn and Liubov Sholudko contributed reporting from Kyiv, and Alina Lobzina from London.
