Russia reportedly executes POW with sword, Kyiv appeals to UN, Red Cross

Editor’s note: The story has been updated with information from the Prosecutor General’s Office on the location of the alleged killing of a Ukrainian soldier.
Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Sept. 17 that he had appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations in response to a photo that allegedly shows the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) by Russia.
On the morning of Sept. 17, a photo of an apparently executed Ukrainian soldier with a sword in his chest and the inscription “For Kursk” appeared on social media. Remnants of gray tape are visible on the soldier’s hand.
The photo appears to show a bloodied body lying on the road against the backdrop of damaged vehicles and a house with broken windows. The exact location is unclear.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the photo.
“The level of barbarism and bloodthirstiness is impossible to comprehend,” Lubinets wrote on his Telegram channel. The ombudsman stressed that such actions are a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.
Later in the day, the Prosecutor General’s Office said that the alleged execution of a   Ukrainian soldier took place in the town of Novohrodivka in Donetsk Oblast. Ukrainian authorities have not yet established the time when the alleged execution took place.
The investigation is ongoing to establish the circumstances and identify the people responsible for the crime. The pre-trial investigation is conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine’s (SBU) investigators in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.
There have been multiple reports of Ukrainian POWs being tortured or killed while in Russian captivity since the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. As of September, the Prosecutor General’s Office said 28 criminal investigations were underway regarding the execution of 62 Ukrainian POWs.
In early September, Lubinets reported another case of the alleged execution of a Ukrainian soldier, which was recorded on video.
The footage allegedly showed a Russian soldier who asks a Ukrainian military service member if he wants to “say the last word, pray before dying,” and then shoots him with a rifle three times.