War Atrocities Caught on Camera: Footage Shows Russian Troops Executing Ukrainian Fighters Despite Surrender

A chilling Ukrainian drone video captured a harrowing scene: troops emerging onto a dusty path, kneeling with their hands on their heads, and then lying face down, motionless.

The harrowing footage, obtained by CNN, recently was filmed near Pokrovsk, a city in eastern Ukraine. The video appears to show Russian troops executing three surrendering Ukrainian soldiers after their trench was overrun.

A Ukrainian official, who requested anonymity to protect the unit involved, said the incident is part of a pattern of apparent executions that seem to be increasing.

Since November, Ukrainian defense intelligence has documented 15 cases, mostly supported by drone footage or audio intercepts, that they say show surrendering Ukrainian troops were killed by Russian forces rather than being taken prisoner.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, told CNN that his office is investigating at least 28 such incidents since the war began. Following the troubling report, Kostin announced on X that prosecutors are investigating the footage from Pokrovsk, along with another video that emerged on Telegram showing a suspected execution of a captured Ukrainian soldier.

Ukrainian prosecutors said on Sept. 6 that they are investigating “the possible execution of 73 Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian military.” The Pokrovsk footage underscores the brutal tactics employed by Russian forces as they continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Despite recent Ukrainian gains in the Russian border region of Kursk, Moscow’s relentless push toward the strategic hub of Pokrovsk continues, even as speculation swirls that the Kremlin might need to shift resources to defend its own territory.

Prosecutor General Kostin told CNN that the alleged killings constitute war crimes and may reflect a deliberate policy by the Kremlin. “If prisoners of war surrender, if they show that they surrender, if they are without weapons in their hands, then summary execution is a war crime,” he said.

Kostin suggested that these crimes, committed by various Russian units in different regions, could allow Kyiv to argue that such actions amount to crimes against humanity, orchestrated by the Kremlin under orders from specific commanders.

The emergence of videos showing what appears to be a growing Russian tactic of executing prisoners has posed a challenge for Ukrainian commanders, who must decide how to alert their troops and the world to Russian atrocities without undermining already fragile Ukrainian morale. The Ukrainian official who provided the Pokrovsk footage noted that their unit knew of several similar cases on the front lines that have not been made public or formally investigated.

Several Russian servicemen have faced trial over such killings, including one in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian prosecutors allege that the accused was a convict released from prison in November to serve in the Russian military’s 127th Motorized Rifle Division. Drone footage provided by prosecutors allegedly shows this individual shooting a Ukrainian soldier who was surrendering near Priyutne in January.

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CNN obtained another drone video from Zaporizhzhia, showing an incident in May near Robotyne where Russian troops ordered three Ukrainian soldiers to lie face down after their dugout was overrun. Audio transcripts provided by Ukrainian defense intelligence suggest that a Russian commander, “Turk,” instructed his subordinate “Maloy” to execute the prisoners, which the video then appears to show.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin is under an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over alleged forced deportations of Ukrainian children, Kyiv is actively pursuing broader genocide claims against Moscow. Prosecutor General Kostin suggested that the systematic nature of these battlefield executions could be part of the wider genocide case, potentially elevating individual war crimes to crimes against humanity.