Vladimir Putin's Russian troops routinely execute Prisoners of War, claims 'Hero of Ukraine'

Footage taken by Russian soldiers or Ukrainian surveillance drones appears to show servicemen being shot dead after they have surrendered.

One video, filmed by a drone on November 19, near Pokrovsk, allegedly shows a soldier using a machine gun to shoot at four unarmed men as they lie on the ground, face down, before aiming at a fifth man who was trying to flee.

Cases of beheadings, and even one instance of a Ukrainian soldier being killed with a sword when he had his hands tied behind his back, are currently being investigated by prosecutors.

Speaking to The Times, Maj Shyriaiev, who commands the Ukrainian 225th Separate Assault Battalion, said that Russian losses far outweigh those of Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin throws hundreds of thousands of soldiers "into the grinder" while peace talks continue.

"The ratio of [Russian] losses is ten to one, sometimes more than that," Maj Shyriaiev said.

"Russians are trying to push forward so that in the peace negotiations they can push this narrative that they are achieving successes."

According to Ukrainian prosecutors, at least 147 Ukrainian prisoners of war have been executed since the invasion in 2022. Almost 130 of those have been this year, with the majority in summer and autumn.

Yuri Belousov, the head of the war crimes department at the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General’s Office, said: "The upward trend is very clear, very obvious. Sadly, their number has been particularly on the rise this summer and autumn.

"This tells us that they are not isolated cases. They are happening across vast areas and they have clear signs of being part of a policy."

And Maj Shyriaiev believes that in recent months, the killing of Ukrainian servicemen has become "systematic".

"The number of executions is growing and this is happening in all directions of the front line," he continued. "For Russians, there are no red lines."

"In the wiretaps and radio communication that we intercept, we routinely hear their military leadership giving orders to execute our servicemen who are trying to surrender.

"This practice has become a systematic one, I would say, in the last year and a half. They are demonstrating to the whole civilised world that they can do things with impunity.

"But also they are showing that they do not respect the rules of warfare and any international conventions that have been signed by countries.

"Unlike Russians, we do not use these inhuman methods. When we take Russians into captivity, we treat them in accordance with international law."

Prisoners of War are protected by international law, such as the Third Geneva Convention. Executing them is a war crime.

However, the Russian President has insisted that they have "always" treated Ukrainian prisoners of war "strictly in line with international legal documents and international conventions".

Maj Shyriaiev believes that if Ukraine does not hold its ground, Russia "are going to go further", suggesting "Europe, Finland, the Baltic countries and Poland" would be their next step.

But peace talks have gained momentum in recent weeks.

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that peace is "95 per cent" there at a landmark press conference on Sunday.

The US President also insisted that Russian President Putin is keen to end the war.

While he refused to give a deadline, President Trump said that it will be clear "in a few weeks" whether negotiations to end the war will succeed, acknowledging that "thorny issues" remain in place before a deal could be agreed.

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