Ukrainian prisoner executed with sword inscribed with words ‘for Kursk’

The Telegraph: A Ukrainian prisoner of war was executed with a sword inscribed with the words “for Kursk”, according to officials in Kyiv.

Photographs published online appear to show the man’s body lying on a road against a backdrop of damaged armoured vehicles and a building with broken windows.

The corpse’s arms are seen held above its head while its chest is impaled with a sword.

“The Russians executed an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war with a sword. His hands were bound with tape,” Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, wrote on social media.

“The level of barbarism and bloodthirstiness is impossible to comprehend,” he added.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said it had established that the image was taken in the city of Novohrodivka in the Donetsk region.

However, authorities in Kyiv were unable to say where and when the man was killed. Neither did they reveal the identity of the alleged victim.

The city where the body was photographed is less than two miles from the current front line in the fighting between Ukraine and Russia, according to the Deep State website, which maps changes on the battlefield.

The Telegraph could not independently verify the photographs.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, said the alleged execution was ‘impossible to comprehend’ - Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images Europe

Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said: “The criminal regime continues its purposeful policy of destroying everything Ukrainian, demonstrating to the whole world its monstrous cruelty and cynically disregarding any values and norms of the civilised world.

“Our goal is to find and punish everyone involved in these crimes. The world must see the atrocities of the occupiers and respond decisively to each such case. Only by joint efforts can we punish this evil.”

Ukrainian officials also said they had launched an “urgent investigation” into the alleged war crime.

Mr Lubinets said he had informed the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, and urged them to record the alleged execution as a war crime.

Ukraine has reported numerous incidents of prisoners of war being executed by Russian soldiers, often with graphic footage shared on social media afterwards.

The prosecutor’s office has opened 28 criminal investigations into the alleged executions of 62 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

Earlier this month, Mr Lubinets reported the alleged killing of a captured Ukrainian soldier who was told to “say the last word, pray before dying” before being shot three times with a rifle.

One of the most notable killings of a Ukrainian soldier by Russians was of Oleksandr Matsievskiy, who was filmed standing alone, smoking a cigarette, in a wooded area in eastern Ukraine.

Footage of the final seconds of his life shows him saying “slava Ukraini” – a generations-old Ukrainian war motto meaning “glory to Ukraine” – before gunfire is heard ringing out and he is seen slumping to the ground.