Video footage shows Russians killing surrendering Ukrainian soldiers

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic images and descriptions of violence.

The troops appear and stagger to the centre of the dusty road, kneel down and put their hands on their heads. Seconds later, as Ukrainian drone footage shows, they lie face down, motionless, leaving a trail of dust around them.

A video obtained exclusively by CNN, filmed during late August fighting near the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk, shows an apparent execution by Russian troops of three surrendering Ukrainians after their trench was overrun.

The incident, described by a Ukrainian official who asked that some details be withheld to protect the identity of the unit, is part of a pattern of apparent executions, the pace of which appears to be increasing this year.

Ukrainian defense intelligence sources have given CNN a list of 15 cases since November, most backed by drone video or audio intercepts, in which they say surrendering Ukrainian troops were killed by the Russians on the front lines, rather than taken prisoner.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general told CNN his office was investigating 28 such incidents since the start of the war, in which a total of 62 Ukrainian servicemen were killed.

Images from the Pokrovsk region appear to reflect the relentlessly brutal tactics of the Russian military as it continues to advance into eastern Ukraine.

Moscow’s advance towards Ukraine’s strategic military hub of Pokrovsk has continued, despite recent advances by kyiv in Russia’s border region of Kursk, which are fuelling hopes that the Kremlin may be forced to divert troops to defend Russia’s own borders.

Ukrainian prosecutors told CNN they believe the alleged killings are war crimes and part of a Kremlin-orchestrated policy. “If prisoners of war surrender, if they prove that they surrender, if they have no weapons in their hands, then summary execution is a war crime,” Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, told CNN.

Kostin argued that these crimes had been committed in different areas of Ukraine, by a variety of units, which gave Kiev “the opportunity to claim that this policy could be elevated to the level of crimes against humanity. This policy is orchestrated by the Kremlin. It is an order from specific commanders.”

The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet responded to CNN’s request for comment on the allegations.

The emergence of videos showing what appears to be escalating Russian tactics has presented a dilemma for Ukrainian commanders, who face the unenviable task of warning their troops and the world about Russian savagery, at the risk of undermining already depleted Ukrainian morale.

The Ukrainian official who provided the Pokrovsk drone footage said his unit was aware of multiple similar cases on the front lines that had not been publicized or investigated.

A few cases have recently become public, including one in Toretsk, which claimed on Telegram that it had a drone video, which it posted on Tuesday, showing three Ukrainian soldiers emerging from a basement, hands raised in surrender, and being shot dead by Russian troops. Prosecutors in the Donetsk region said they had opened an investigation into “violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder.”

Several Russian servicemen have been put on trial accused of such killings, including one in the Zaporizhia region of southern Ukraine. Ukrainian prosecutors allege the Russian was a convict, released from his robbery sentence in November to serve in the Russian army’s 127th motorized rifle division. Prosecutors have released drone footage supporting their claim the Russian shot a Ukrainian soldier in January as he emerged, arms raised, from his trench near Priyutne and then knelt down.

CNN has obtained another drone video, also from the Zaporizhia region, showing how in May this year, near the disputed village of Robotyne, Russian troops ordered three Ukrainian soldiers to lie face down after their shelter was overrun. Ukrainian defense intelligence has provided CNN with audio transcripts of intercepts of what it says was the order from a Russian commander, known as “Turk,” to his subordinate at the camp, “Maloy,” to kill the prisoners.

TURK: Take them down, damn it, zero them, zero them!

MALOY: Understood, copied.

TURK:⁠ ⁠Once you get them to zero, let us know.

The drone video shows how, once the three Ukrainians are out of the trench and face down, the Russians open fire.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for his role in an alleged plot to forcibly deport Ukrainian children to Russia, Kiev is aggressively pursuing genocide allegations against Moscow. Kostin, the prosecutor general, suggested that the systematic nature of these alleged battlefield executions means they could become part of a broader genocide case.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Dr Morris Tidball-Binz, visited Ukraine in May at the invitation of kyiv, in part to examine reports of extrajudicial executions in combat.

A UN investigative source told CNN that some of the apparent executions of Ukrainian soldiers had been the subject of its review. “There are many. There is a pattern. It suggests complacency, if not orders to give no quarter,” the source said, referring to the practice of showing no mercy.

“The killings are individually war crimes,” the source said, “and taken together they could constitute crimes against humanity.”

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