The Department of Defense has seen indications that Russian soldiers have executed Ukrainian civilians during the Kremlin’s invasion.
“We at the department do believe that Russian forces have committed war crimes,” a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Thursday. “We do believe Russian forces have committed atrocities. We have seen on our own indications that they have participated in executions of Ukrainian civilians.”
The official couldn’t confirm U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack’s recent remarks that a Russian military unit may have killed surrendering Ukrainians in the Donestk region, which prompted his remark about war crimes.
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“We now have credible information that a Russian military unit operating in the vicinity of Donetsk executed Ukrainians who were attempting to surrender rather than take them into custody,” Van Schaak told the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday. “If true, this would be a violation of a core principle of the laws of war: the prohibition against the summary execution of civilians and combatants who are hors de combat by virtue of surrender, injury, or other forms of incapacitation.”
The ambassador-at-large also said there are “credible reports” of “execution-style” killings, torture, and sexual violence being committed by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military across Ukraine.
Ukrainian General Prosecutor Iryna Venediktova accused 10 Russian soldiers by name of committing human rights abuses in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha on Thursday, while her office has already opened 8,000 cases of alleged war crimes. A “short investigation” concluded that these soldiers “captured unarmed civilians hostage, killed them with hunger and thirst, held them on their knees with tied hands and closed eyes, mocked and beaten,” she said.
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The soldiers, part of the 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade, included four privates, four corporals, and two sergeants.
The Buchanan District Prosecutor’s Office specifically accused them of being “involved in the torture of peaceful people,” which qualifies as “civilian abuse and other violations of laws and war customs.”
