Ukrainian AG’s office investigates Russian POW execution video, suspects Makiivka captives of feigning surrender

The Ukrainian Attorney General’s office is investigating the video footage showing the alleged killing of captive Russian soldiers by the Ukrainian military.

Gyunduz Mamedov, the former Ukrainian deputy AG, tweeted that the incident in Makiivka has been qualified as “perfidy” committed by the Russian troops in feigning surrender (Article 438 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code). “Perfidy is a form of deception,” involving “actions aimed at gaining the enemy’s confidence in order to gain military advantage,” Mamedov explained.

The investigators are considering the possibility that the Russian soldiers had opened fire while feigning surrender. If true, this would constitute a war crime under the international humanitarian law. The AG’s office has not yet made any comment on the investigation.

Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the Ukrainian Chief of Staff, is claiming that Kyiv is in possession of a full version of the alleged POW execution video. He says that some of the Russian soldiers in the video wanted to surrender, while the others opened fire on the Ukrainian military.

On November 18, a number of Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels posted a video, which showed an apparent execution of no less than 10 Russian soldiers by the Ukrainian military. Kyiv promised to investigate the incident, which supposedly took place in Makiivka, a city in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.

On November 21, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would conduct its own investigation, and would find “those who perpetrated this crime.”

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