Since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Kyiv has documented a systematic pattern of executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) by Russian forces. The exact toll remains disputed, but Ukrainian officials and international monitors agree that the numbers are rising sharply.
Lyudmyla Dubnytska received a final message from her husband, Andriy Dubnytsky, a soldier in the 110th brigade, warning that he was about to be captured near Avdiivka in February 2024. Two days later, she identified his body in a video on Russian social media showing five dead Ukrainian troops lying in a frozen puddle. Dubnytsky was 25.
According to Ukrainian prosecutors, the incident is part of a broader pattern. Andriy Atamantchuk, an official with the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office overseeing POW executions, told AFP that Russian commanders have issued orders encouraging such crimes. “This stems from a Russian policy that has effectively encouraged and enabled such crimes,” he said.
Verification and Discrepancies
A UN report published last month verified 129 executions of Ukrainian POWs, noting a “marked increase” in cases since 2023. Kyiv has opened 116 investigations into the killings of 306 servicemen, but Atamantchuk stressed the true figure is likely far higher. A Ukrainian intelligence official, speaking anonymously, said they have tracked “more than 900 military personnel” killed in “more than 340” incidents, adding that this may represent only 25 to 40 percent of actual cases.
The discrepancy stems from differing methodologies: the prosecutor's office relies on documented and proven facts, while intelligence services receive faster information from frontline units. Moscow has systematically rejected the accusations and in turn accuses Kyiv of committing war crimes.
Under the Geneva Conventions, soldiers are considered POWs from the moment they clearly surrender. Ukrainian intelligence points to the Wagner paramilitary group, dismantled after its 2023 rebellion, as having “set the tone” for executions, drawing on its ranks of ex-prisoners convicted of violent crimes. Most victims are shot dead, but Ukrainian investigators have also documented extremely brutal murders, including beheadings, with images circulating on Russian social media.
So far, only five Russian soldiers have been convicted in Ukraine, two in absentia. The complexity of investigations, hampered by lack of access to combat zones, complicates judicial proceedings. Atamantchuk hopes to one day “do justice” to families by providing “the names of those who killed their loved ones.”
For Dubnytska, knowing the identity of her husband's killer would be “senseless.” She told AFP, “I don't know how that would give me any relief, even if I knew one day who did it.”
The ongoing conflict has also seen other forms of Russian aggression, including strikes on over 100 vessels in the Sea of Azov and ballistic missile and drone attacks on Kyiv that injured civilians. Meanwhile, European allies continue to respond, with the EU Commission withdrawing a grant from the Venice Biennale over the reopening of the Russian pavilion.
