The Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman has denounced the alleged execution of nine Ukrainian troops by Russian forces in the Kursk border area.
Dmytro Lubinets said he had written to the United Nations and the Red Cross about the allegations, accusing Moscow of violating “all the rules and customs of war.”
The intervention follows reporting by Ukrainian human rights group DeepStat, which published drone images claiming to show dead troops they said were drone operators. Officials in Russia have not yet responded to the allegations.
Kiev is believed to have deployed thousands of troops in the Russian border area since launching its shock raid earlier this summer.
The images published by DeepState showed the dead Ukrainian troops stripped to their underwear and lying face down on what appeared to be farmland in Kursk. The BBC cannot independently verify the footage.
The outlet said the drone operators had been overrun by a rapid Russian advance.
“These actions cannot go unpunished and the enemy must bear full responsibility,” Lubinets wrote in a message to Telegram. “The international community cannot turn a blind eye to such crimes!”
Kiev has repeatedly accused Russia of executing captured Ukrainian troops – a war crime under the Geneva Convention. Earlier this month, the Attorney General’s Office claimed that Russian forces had executed 93 Ukrainian soldiers since the start of the conflict.
It added that an official investigation had been opened into reports that 16 Ukrainian soldiers had been executed in the eastern region of Donetsk, near the city of Pokrovsk – where fighting has been going on for months. Officials said the reports would mark the “largest mass execution” of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian forces since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.
The Kremlin denies that its soldiers committed war crimes in Ukraine.
The reports come as Russian forces continue to attack Ukrainian positions in Kursk. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his late-night speech from Kiev on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had repelled a renewed Russian advance in the region.
Analysts say Kiev launched the offensive to try to force Russia to divert some of its forces from its offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimates that there are now around 40,000 Russian forces operating in Kursk – up from 11,000 when Ukrainian forces first crossed the border.
But the offensive has failed to slow Russian momentum in the eastern Donbas region, where brutal attacks have slowly pushed Ukrainian forces backward.
The Ukrainian leader acknowledged in his speech on Saturday that “there are very difficult conditions, with harsh enemy actions” in both Donetsk and Zaporizhia.
On Sunday morning, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces had captured the village of Mykhailivka, which is located along a highway near the main city of Pokrovsk.
Russian troops have been advancing towards Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub, for months. Experts say that if Russia can capture the city, Ukraine’s ability to supply units in other crucial cities would become much more difficult.
Meanwhile, Russian air raids on Ukraine continued overnight. Air force officials in Kiev said Moscow launched 68 drones and four missiles toward Ukrainian territory.
