THIS IS the sick moment Putin’s brutes execute surrendering Ukrainians – despite them falling to the ground with their hands up.
The grainy aerial footage showed how the troops were mercilessly gunned down after emerging from their trench.
Two surrendering Ukrainian troops were mercilessly gunned down by Russian troopsEast2West
East2WestIn the grainy video footage one of the soldiers can be seen lying on the ground with his hands on his head while the other emerges from the trench[/caption]
A Ukrainian official has claimed that the Russian soldiers were themselves later “liquidated” in the war zone near Avdiivka when Kyiv forces stormed their positions.
The chilling video shows one unarmed Ukrainian soldier emerge from a trench with his hands above his head.
He evidently obeys instructions shouted by the Russian invaders and lies face down on the ground.
A second Ukrainian from the 45th separate rifle battalion then comes out of the underground passage and is seen rapidly shot in a hail of machine gun fire.
The first soldier gets up to look what is happening and is also gunned to death in a cloud of smoke.
While the video has as yet not been independently authenticated, it appears to show clear evidence of war crimes with the shooting of two fighters who had plainly surrendered.
“They surrendered because they ran out of ammunition,” said Vitaliy Barabash, a Ukrainian official who heads the Avdiivka administration.
“As far as I know, a little later our guys stormed these positions, and all those [Russian soldiers] who were there were killed.”
The grainy aerial video is undergoing investigation for evidence of war crimes by the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office.
Russia has not immediately commented on the alleged barbarism.
“The video shows how a group of people in Russian uniform shoot from close range two unarmed servicemen in the uniform of the armed forces of Ukraine who surrendered as prisoners,” said the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office.
“The killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and is classified as a serious international crime.
The incident is believed to have been in Stepove village in the partially occupied Donetsk region.
Fighting in this area – close to Avdiivka – is currently intense.
Oleksandr Shtupun, spokesman for the Tavria operational and strategic grouping of troops, told Ukrainian Pravda: “The Russian occupiers cynically violate the rules and customs of warfare every day.
“And this video is a glaring confirmation of that.
“It undergoes the appropriate verification and documentation procedures.
“Such crimes do not have a statute of limitations, all evidence will be handed over to the relevant international institutions that deal with war crimes.”
It is not the first time such accusations have been made against Ukrainian forces.
In March, footage of an unarmed PoW exclaiming ‘Glory to Ukraine’ before being gunned down in woodland triggered a national outcry in Ukraine.
Last week we told of two embarrassing blunders made by Russian troops.
Major Russian news outlets boasted a precision Lancet drone attack on a Ukrainian warplane on the ground – only to find that they had destroyed a worthless decoy.
And another blunder occurred when elite Russian marines blew themselves up after they accidentally triggered live ammunition.
East2WestThe soldier emerging was gunned down and when the man on the floor gets up to see what’s happening he’s also shot[/caption]
East2WestVitaliy Barabash said: ‘They surrendered because they ran out of ammunition,’[/caption]