UKRAINE, June 20 — A Ukrainian soldier who Russian soldiers cruelly murdered in Donetsk Oblast was identified, Andrii Kostin, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, said on June 19. 

On June 18, Kostin wrote that the Ukrainian military got information about Moscow troops in the Volnovakha district of Donetsk Oblast being ordered not to take Ukrainian soldiers prisoner and “kill them with inhuman cruelty.” During an aerial reconnaissance mission, he said, Ukrainian troops discovered a damaged armored vehicle belonging to Ukraine’s military with a cut-off head of a Ukrainian soldier lying on its hood. 

Andrii Kostin said that the Prosecutor’s Office cannot currently name the soldier executed by Russians because “the procedures for final identification are ongoing.” 

He also noted that Russian commanders, potentially responsible for the beheading of the Ukrainian soldier, are also identified. The information relating to that is currently being verified. 

“This fact is another confirmation that a complete disdain for international law and human morals is a state’s policy of a terrorist country, russia,” Prosecutor General said. “Every world leader who shakes putin’s hand must understand that they shake hands with a person tolerating barbaric murders.” 

Russian executions and torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war during the full-scale invasion aren’t rare. Human Rights Watch’s report published on May 2 indicates that, since December 2023, Moscow troops executed at least 15 surrendering Ukrainian soldiers. 

Kharkiv regional Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into the cruel treatment of Ukrainian POWs in Kharkiv direction. Ukraine’s ombudsman, Dmytro Lybinets, wrote an appeal to an International Red Cross Committee and the United Nations to document the fact of Russian troops torturing Ukrainian POWs after the start of their new offensive north of Kharkiv. 

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