A new report by the United Nations has said Russia may have executed at least 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in the three months to February 29.
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The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on March 26 that between December 1 and February 29, it had received reports of 12 cases of executions of at least 32 POWs and was able to verify the killing of seven captured Ukrainian servicemen.
The report added that the Ukrainian POWs were killed either after laying down their weapons or during interrogation.
The OHCHR said that during the reporting period it interviewed 60 Ukrainian POWs who had been released as part of a prisoner exchange. More than half of the POWs, all men, disclosed that they had been subjected to sexual violence, electric shocks, and beatings.
The Kremlin has not commented on the UN report.
The UN rights office also said that it had interviewed 44 Russian POWs, who said they had been tortured either immediately after capture or during transport to detention facilities.
On February 21, the United Nations reported that at least 10,582 Ukrainian civilians had been killed and over 19,875 had been injured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, adding “it is likely the real number of civilian casualties is much higher.”
Despite vast amounts of evidence to the contrary, Moscow has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukraine claimed to have shot down 10 out of 13 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia in the early hours of March 27. The drones were launched from Russia’s Kursk region and targeted the Kharkiv, Kyiv, and Sumy regions in Ukraine.
In Izyum, in the Kharkiv region, at least one person was wounded by falling debris and a school building was damaged, regional governor Oleh Synyehubov reported on Telegram.
Separately, Russia’s Defense Ministry alleged that it had intercepted 18 Ukrainian missiles approaching the Belgorod region. One person was reportedly injured, and buildings were damaged as a result of falling debris.
Neither Kyiv nor Moscow has commented on the other’s claim.