Commenting on an incident in eastern Luhansk on Sunday, Ukraine’s parliamentary commissioner for human rights Dmytro Lubinets said Russian military “are the ones fighting and committing treason” and that “shooting back is not a war crime”.
Russia has accused Ukraine of war crimes after videos emerged on social media showing Russian soldiers killed after surrendering to Ukrainian forces, according to Moscow.
The exact details of what happened remain unclear.
“From some video clips about the incident with the Russian army in the Luhansk region, it can be concluded that the Russians committed a war crime with the help of the staged surrender – they opened fire on the army of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Lubinets said in a statement. Telegram message on Sunday suggesting that the Russians in the video may have pretended to surrender but failed to do so.
“In this case, persons among the Russian military cannot be considered prisoners of war, but those who fight and commit treason,” he said. “Returning fire is not a war crime. On the contrary, anyone who wants to use the protections of international law to kill must be punished.”
What the video seems to show: The edited video claims to show captured Russian soldiers surrendering, with several men lying on their stomachs on the ground with their hands above their heads. More soldiers are seen coming out of a building one by one and lie down next to them in the yard.
A voice can be heard seemingly directing the surrender, calling, “Come out, one by one. Which of you is the officer? Has everyone come out? To come outside!”
After about 10 men crash to the ground, another soldier emerges from the same building and appears to open fire in the direction of the surrendering Ukrainian soldiers.
A short burst of gunfire can be heard before the music video ends abruptly.
A second clip, later filmed from a drone over the same location, shows the bodies of what appear to be the same Russian soldiers in the garden, most of them just a few feet from where they had been in the first clip.
DailyExpertNews has been unable to verify exactly what happened in the first video clip, and it’s unclear exactly what happened in the period between the first clip and the filming of the drone footage.
The UN is investigating: Marta Hurtado, a spokesman for the United Nations Human Rights Office, said, according to Reuters: “We are aware of the videos and we are investigating them. Allegations of summary executions of people outside combat must be investigated swiftly, fully and effectively, and any perpetrators held accountable.”
More context: A UN panel of experts said in September their investigation found evidence of war crimes committed during Russia’s war in Ukraine, including cases of rape and torture of children.