“I thought I’d see him again; they’re not some animals, are they?” says Inna Shubina, the sister of Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier Ivan Zhytnyk. A day after their last conversation, she saw a video on social media showing Ivan already dead. The Russians executed him and five other Ukrainian soldiers at the ‘Zenit’ position in Avdiivka.
This report examines the executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers. Since autumn 2023, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of cases where Russians have killed unarmed Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.
Journalists from Slidstvo. Info reviewed dozens of drone videos capturing the executions of Ukrainian soldiers and spoke to law enforcement officers and Russian military personnel to determine whether there are signs of a systematic pattern in these actions by the Russian Armed Forces and whether this might indicate a change in the Russian side’s policy regarding the treatment of captured Ukrainian Defence Forces soldiers.
