UKRAINE, Apr 22 — The UN monitoring mission confirmed 79 execution cases of the Ukrainian military by the Russian army since August 2024, said Dmytro Lubinets, Ombudsman of Ukraine.

Russia has been violating international humanitarian law for 11 years in Ukraine, and its scale was increased during the full-scale invasion.

Russian forces executed a lot of Ukrainian soldiers, who surrendered or were captured on the spot. They also killed unarmed and injured soldiers, reported the UN monitoring mission.

“These incidents did not occur in a vacuum. Public figures in the Russian Federation have explicitly called for inhumane treatment, and even execution, of captured Ukrainian military personnel,” said the head of the mission, Danielle Bell.

Lubinets also stated about documented cases of torture, sexual violence, and other forms of inhumane actions toward captured Ukrainian soldiers, which confirms the systemic politics of Russian forces.

Lubinets asked the international community to judge the actions of the Russian army as war crimes and genocide actions (including the deportation of Ukrainian children in Russia — ed.), to increase the sanctions against Russia, support the investigation of the International Criminal Court, help Ukraine in recording Russian war crimes, and return kidnapped children and captured soldiers.

In 2025, Kharkiv Oblast is still among the leaders in the number of appeals about human rights violations by Russia, said Oksana Cherviakova, the head of the regional Ombudsman’s Office in Kharkiv.

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