Videos show alleged Ukrainian prisoners of war executed by Russian soldiers

Multiple videos show the men’s last moments, as they kneel or lie on the ground with their hands on their heads or behind their backs.

WARNING: This article includes graphic descriptions. CIR has not linked to graphic footage in this article to protect readers. Most videos mentioned here are featured in the documentary below, though others are available upon request.

In a barren field, seven unarmed soldiers emerge from a dugout at gunpoint, arms raised above their heads. Some of them appear to trip and fall as they climb out of the ditch and are ordered to lie face down outside of it. Moments later, the men are shot multiple times. When an eighth soldier staggers out of the dugout, he too is shot at close range. 

The incident was filmed by a Ukrainian military drone and was posted to the social media app Telegram on 25 February 2024. The soldiers who are shot in the video – dressed in pale camouflage uniforms – are believed to be Ukrainian troops.

Though the footage is heavily desaturated, it is possible to see red bands on the arms and legs of the soldiers on the opposing side, indicating that the three men involved in the shooting are most likely Russian. 

The field visible in the footage can be geolocated one km north of the village of Ivanivske, Donetsk Oblast. The execution site was in contested territory at the time the video was posted in February, with Russian forces advancing east towards the village.

A day later, the site was assessed by DeepState – a map monitoring the latest frontline developments – as being under Russian control.  It was reported that Russian forces occupied Ivanivske on 10 June 2024.

This is not an isolated case. Over the past year, CIR’s Eyes on Russia team collected multiple other videos and photographs like this one that claim to show executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian forces. 

Investigators found 22 of these incidents to be highly credible, based on open source analysis and verification. These incidents account for a total of 80 dead soldiers, believed to be Ukrainian. 

In a new documentary, CIR shows how several of these executions happened after soldiers had visibly surrendered or been disarmed. Multiple videos show the men’s last moments, as they kneel or lie on the ground with their hands on their heads or behind their backs.  

CIR was able to independently verify the location of 11 of these incidents, which were widespread across the frontline. 

One video shows a perpetrator firing multiple shots into a soldier’s torso, before turning to the camera and claiming “this is our land”. He refers to Russia’s mission of eradicating Ukraine of “Nazism” to “liberate this land from enemies” – a narrative used repeatedly by the Kremlin to justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

There has been a surge in the number of cases emerging online over the past 12 months. Over half of the videos and photographs were posted since September 2024, with the most recent appearing on 26 November. This does not necessarily mean more executions are taking place, but at least that more are surfacing online.

Close-range executions

Most of the videos were filmed by Ukrainian military drones that are routinely used to monitor activity on the battlefield. These videos have been shared indirectly by Ukrainian military sources with social media accounts, allowing CIR to analyse the videos independently. 

Six incidents included in this investigation are based on drone images shared directly with the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office. In these instances, CIR could not access or verify the original recordings, and 24 out of 80 deaths included here were based on their reports. 

A handful of close-up videos were filmed by self-proclaimed Russian soldiers, capturing the chilling moments before and after close-range executions. 

In one video posted online on 3 October 2024, a shirtless man is on his knees in a ditch and is threatened with a knife. He is pushed forward, his head hitting the ground, and we can momentarily see that his hands are bound behind his back. A local Telegram channel described him as a 52-year-old from Lviv, western Ukraine. 

One of the perpetrators is partially visible in the top right-hand corner of the video’s frame. As he pushes the man forward, we can see that he is wearing a Russian military uniform and a red identifying armband. By stitching the frames together, we get a fleeting glimpse of the perpetrator’s face. Someone who is not visible on camera gives orders to “slap him [the alleged prisoner]” on the face and “shoot him on his thighs”. 

The man’s fate is played out in a second video posted to Telegram at the same time. In this video, the victim stands in a field, back to the camera, before two Russian soldiers fire multiple rounds at him, shooting him dead.

Verifying the specific unit these soldiers belong to is difficult through open source alone, though both videos display references to the Russian mercenary group Wagner. 

In the first video, the alleged Ukrainian prisoner is ordered to thank “uncle Zhenya Prigozhin” – a reference to the former Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash last year after leading an aborted revolt against Russian armed forces. 

In the second video, one of the shooters appears to be wearing a Wagner patch on his uniform. He could be one of many Wagner fighters recruited in bulk by some Russian units following the dissolution of Wagner operations in Ukraine, though the patch also holds cultural significance among Russian fighters and is also worn by individuals not currently serving in a Wagner unit. 

Clues in the camouflage 

Eyes on Russia investigators used open source verification techniques to study the incidents caught on camera, analysing soldiers’ uniforms as well as any dialogue exchanged. 

They also assessed the incidents’ proximity to the front line, nearby military activity and troop movement, and whether areas were under Russian or Ukrainian control at the time.  

Ukrainian troops generally wear lighter camouflage prints, usually in shades of light green and grey, while Russians wear darker brown and green shades. In some videos, it is possible to distinguish between the uniforms that appear lighter and those that appear much darker. 

Soldiers sometimes wear coloured bands or straps on their arms, legs or helmets to indicate allegiance. Russian troops have been seen wearing white or red straps, while Ukrainian soldiers use yellow, blue or green. 

But in some videos, soldiers wear nondescript uniforms, making it harder to know which side they belong to. 

For instance, in a video posted on Telegram by a pro-Russian channel on 6 September 2024, an unarmed individual with a bandaged leg – alleged to be a Ukrainian soldier by the uploader – is executed by an alleged Russian soldier. 

The alleged Ukrainian soldier, pictured above, is wearing a nondescript military uniform rather than the usual unique, pixelated camouflage worn by most Ukrainian soldiers, and he does not have any coloured bands or tape. He does, however, wear a pair of military boots manufactured in Ukraine that can be found on a Ukrainian website specialising in protective clothing and footwear.

‘I killed him’

In some of the videos, dialogue provides crucial context, and while it is not audible in the drone footage, in some of the close-up videos conversations or exchanges are captured on camera. 

In a video posted on Telegram on 24 August 2024, a cameraman approaches a wounded Ukrainian soldier. The soldiers command him to raise his arms and ask him how many Ukrainian soldiers are in the nearby trench system. 

Someone off-camera yells in Russian. He says “zero him” and then “no wait, don’t zero him” – “zero” is a slang term in the Russian military for “kill”. 

A string of single-fire shots are heard in the background, but we don’t see the possible execution on camera. We do hear the cameraman ask a soldier if he “killed him”, likely referring to the wounded soldier. 

“I killed him”, the Russian soldier responds. 

The languages spoken by perpetrators and victims can also provide crucial insight into incidents. In footage of a close-range execution which surfaced on 9 November 2024, a man lies on the ground, bandaged. Someone behind the camera is questioning him. 

In the exchange, the individual off-camera asks the victim – who is wearing a green identifying armband – where he is from. The victim replies, in Ukrainian, that he is from Sumy Oblast, which is located in northeast Ukraine. The individual asking the questions appears to not understand, and replies, “huh?”

When the victim repeats himself, the person questioning still does not understand, and this time asks “From Omsk?”

The victim corrects him, this time in Russian, “Sumy”. 

The soldier shooting is wearing a mixed camouflage pattern and an orange magazine on his rifle – both commonly used by Russian and Ukrainian troops. 

However, two indications in the exchange strongly suggest the perpetrators are Russian: the person filming appears to struggle to understand the victim when he answers in Ukrainian. He also appears to have a limited understanding of the geography of Ukraine – confusing the Ukrainian pronunciation of “Sumy” with the Russian region of Omsk.

Potential war crimes

The videos featured in CIR’s documentary and investigated by the Eyes on Russia team are only the ones that have surfaced online. They are spread across the front line and are too varied to be linked to one particular unit. 

It is impossible to know how many of these incidents have not been captured on camera, or to confirm why incidents posted online have surged in recent months. 

But one thing is clear – these are not sporadic incidents.

The 22 videos and images we have analysed account for 80 dead soldiers, and potentially 80 families who may or may not know what happened to their loved ones. 

Each death we have logged could potentially constitute a war crime under the Geneva Convention. 

CIR continues to investigate and expose war crimes and atrocities committed by Russia in its full-scale invasion against Ukraine.