Ukraine accuses Russia of killing 268 POWs since 2022

Ukraine said Friday it had opened probes into the alleged executions of 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian troops since Moscow invaded in February 2022.

Kyiv has long accused Moscow of killing captive soldiers, including those who have been injured or surrendered on the battlefield.

It has repeatedly called for an international tribunal to investigate Russian leaders and commanders for alleged war crimes.

In February, a United Nations mission in Ukraine said it had recorded "a sharp rise in reported executions of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian armed forces", recording 79 killings since the end of August 2024.

In a statement, Ukraine's prosecutor general said it had opened 75 criminal proceedings "into the murder of 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian military personnel since the start of the full-scale invasion".

Of those, 57 cases were from 2022, 11 from 2023, 149 from 2024 and 51 so far from 2025, it said.

"This increase is linked to instructions given by the senior leadership of the Russian Federation, both political and military," it said.

Several videos purporting to show captured Ukrainian soldiers being shot on the battlefield, sometimes at point-blank range, have been circulated online.

The Kremlin denies accusations it has committed war crimes in Ukraine, and has repeatedly accused Ukraine of killing captured Russian soldiers.

The United Nations says prisoners on both sides of the three-year war have been "subjected to torture and ill-treatment".