The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, commented Sunday on an incident in eastern Luhansk, saying Russian servicemen “are those that are combating and committing treachery” and that “returning hearth will not be a warfare crime.”
Russia has accused Ukraine of war crimes after video emerged on social media, which Moscow says exhibits Russian troopers killed after surrendering to Ukrainian forces.
The exact particulars of what occurred stay unclear.
“From some items of video concerning the incident with the Russian army in Luhansk area it could be concluded that utilizing the staged give up, the Russians dedicated a warfare crime – they opened hearth on the army of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Lubinets mentioned in a Telegram submit on Sunday, implying that the Russians from the video might have acted as if they might give up however didn’t.
“On this case, individuals among the many Russian servicemen can’t be thought of prisoners of warfare, however are those that are combating and committing treachery,” he mentioned. “Returning hearth will not be a warfare crime. Quite the opposite, those that wish to use the safety of worldwide legislation to kill have to be punished.”
What the video seems to point out: The edited video purports to point out captured Russian troopers in an act of give up, with a number of males mendacity on the bottom on their fronts with their arms over their heads. Extra troopers are seen rising one after the other from a constructing and mendacity down subsequent to them within the yard.
A voice apparently directing the give up might be heard shouting: “Come on out, one after the other. Which of you is the officer? Has everybody come out? Come out!”
After about 10 males are down on the bottom, one other soldier emerges from the identical constructing and seems to open hearth within the course of the Ukrainian troopers conducting the give up.
A brief burst of gunfire is heard earlier than the video clip ends abruptly.
A second clip filmed later from a drone above the identical location exhibits the our bodies of what seem like the identical Russian troopers within the yard, most only a few meters from the place they’d been mendacity within the first clip.
CNN has been unable to confirm precisely what occurred within the first video clip, and it’s unclear precisely what occurred within the interval that elapsed between the primary clip and the filming of the drone footage.
The UN investigates: Marta Hurtado, a spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Workplace, mentioned, according to Reuters: “We’re conscious of the movies and we’re trying into them. Allegations of abstract executions of individuals hors de fight ought to be promptly, absolutely and successfully investigated, and any perpetrators held to account.”
Extra context: A UN panel of specialists mentioned in September that their investigation has discovered evidence that war crimes have been dedicated throughout Russia’s warfare in Ukraine, together with circumstances of rape and torture of youngsters.
