United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission Reports an Increase in War Crimes Against Ukrainian POWs

By: Thomas Cline-Fedorus

The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission has reported an increase in executions of Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russian Armed Forces. It received reports of seventy-nine executions in twenty-four separate incidents since the end of August 2024. The report states that “Many Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered or were in physical custody of the Russian Armed Forces were shot dead on the spot.” According to the United Nations, 95% of Ukrainian prisoners of war are subjected to torture and denied basic needs and access. Following a video showing Russian soldiers executing six unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Donetsk region of Ukraine in January 2025, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case against Russia. Execution of prisoners of war and the wounded is a war crime under the Geneva Convention under Convention III (Treatment of Prisoners of War). Following the report, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, demanded urgent international action. Sybiha has demanded that the International Criminal Court issue arrest warrants for Russian soldiers committing war crimes. The Kremlin has denied any mistreatment of prisoners of war, but Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic, had publicly ordered several times for his soldiers not to take prisoners and to use Ukrainian prisoners as human shields. Between February 2022 and October 2024, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General stated that Russia had killed 102 Ukrainian prisoners of war, and 80% of the murders had occurred in 2024. Following the report, the Deputy Head of the United Kingdom Delegation to the Organization for Security and Co-operation for the United Kingdom, Deirdre Brown, condemned the war crimes committed against Ukrainian prisoners of war. However, the Secretary-General for the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, met with Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko at a BRICs meeting in October 2024. In December 2024, Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the international human rights community. He stated that the international reaction to Russia’s treatment of Ukrainian POWs was “weak” but thanked those who were already working with Ukraine on these issues.

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