Ukraine accuses Russian forces of killing, dismembering prisoner of war By Reuters

KYIV – Ukraine's human rights commissioner called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations to investigate a photo widely shared online on Saturday that he said may show a Ukrainian prisoner of war killed and dismembered by Russian troops.

The Prosecutor General of Ukraine said separately that an urgent investigation has been launched into information spread on social media about the killing and execution of a Ukrainian POW.

“A photo, possibly of a decapitated Ukrainian prisoner by the Russians, has surfaced online,” Dmytro Lubinets, the country's human rights chief, said in a text message.

“In light of these horrific images, I have called on the ICRC and the UN to record further human rights violations by the terrorist state,” Lubinets wrote.

Andriy Kostin, who is the general prosecutor, said that an urgent investigation has been started. “Russia constantly repeats the crimes of the Nazis, shows contempt for all the customs of the civilized world,” he wrote in Telegram.

Russia denies torture or other forms of ill-treatment of POWs.

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in a report published in March that it had documented credible allegations of the killing of at least 32 Ukrainians in 12 separate incidents from December 2023 to February, and that it had independently confirmed three of the incidents.

The three-member Commission of Inquiry said it had also gathered more evidence that Russia systematically harassed Ukrainian POWs, documenting threats of rape and the use of electric shocks on private parts.

It said the scale of such abuses could amount to the most serious abuses known as crimes against humanity, describing their occurrence as “widespread and systematic”.