The American television network CNN has published audio and video materials provided to it by Ukrainian intelligence, which it claims show additional evidence of how, in violation of international law, the Russian command orders the execution of surrendered Ukrainian soldiers.
One of the materials is a conversation intercepted on the radio, in which an unidentified officer of the Russian armed forces repeatedly orders his subordinates, codenamed "Arta" and "Beli", to capture only the commander of a group of captured Ukrainian soldiers and kill the rest. According to Ukrainian intelligence, this conversation took place in November 2024 near the village of Novodarivka in Zaporizhia region.
The audio recording of the conversation was compared with a video allegedly filmed by a drone at the same time and in the same place. The footage shows six alleged Ukrainian servicemen lying face down on the ground. Then, at least two of them were shot at point-blank range, and another - probably their commander - was taken away. The actions of the shooters were in full sync with the orders heard in the audio recording.
The execution was carried out by servicemen from the assault unit of the 394th motorized rifle regiment of the 127th division of the 5th Russian army, according to the Security Service of Ukraine. This unit of the Russian armed forces is suspected of committing other crimes, including the beheading of a Ukrainian prisoner, for which Russian commanders have been indicted in absentia.
Experts: No Signs of Forgery
The publication notes that American journalists have been unable to independently verify the authenticity of the radio intercept or confirm that the recorded conversation is directly related to the drone footage. However, forensic expert Robert Maher, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Montana State University, who has analyzed the files, told CNN that they do not appear to have been edited.
A Western intelligence official who has also studied the files told reporters that he "finds them authentic, credible and consistent with documented brutal executions". "It is clear that the soldier was given orders to execute surrendered Ukrainian soldiers", the expert said. He has studied similar materials from other cases that "confirm the existence of a directive from the Russian command to kill Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered or were in the process of surrendering".
Order from the Russian military leadership?
The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Maurice Tidball-Bins, considers these incidents to be serious violations of international law. According to him, "they would not have happened in this volume and with such frequency if there was no corresponding order, or at least without the consent of the high military command, which in Russia is the president".
Yuri Belousov, head of the department for combating crimes committed in armed conflicts at the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, is also convinced that the executions of Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered were carried out following "instructions given by the highest leaders of the Russian Federation - both political and military". "We have not yet seen a written order, but we have several examples of such orders issued orally," Belousov added.
More and more executions of prisoners of war
The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine reported that as of May 5, a total of 75 criminal cases had been opened on suspicion of the executions of 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war. The number of alleged executions of captured soldiers is growing: in 2022 there were eight cases filed for the murder of a total of 57 soldiers, in 2023 - eight new cases for the murder of 11 soldiers, in 2024 - 39 cases for the murder of 149 soldiers, and since the beginning of this year there have already been 20 cases for the murder of 51 soldiers.
Author: Oleg Sokolenko