Russian occupiers ordered to kill surrendering Ukrainian soldiers – CNN. AUDIO
Russian occupiers are receiving orders to kill Ukrainian servicemembers taken prisoner, according to intercepted communications.
CNN reported this, citing a Ukrainian intelligence official and radio intercepts obtained by Ukrainian forces, Censor.NET reports.
According to the outlet, the intercepted radio transmissions align with the timing of drone footage allegedly showing the execution of Ukrainian soldiers by Russian forces in Zaporizhzhia region last year.
The video shows six soldiers lying face down on the ground. At least two of them were shot at point-blank range, and another was led away. The circumstances surrounding the deaths of the servicemembers are currently under investigation by the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office.
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According to a Ukrainian official familiar with the investigation, the same intercepted radio communications previously obtained by CNN are also being examined as part of the ongoing probe.
CNN journalists and Western intelligence sources have confirmed that the radio transmissions and drone footage are consistent with other documented cases in which Russian forces allegedly executed captured Ukrainian servicemembers.
Morris Tidball-Binz, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, told CNN that the intercepted radio transmissions and drone footage point to Russian troops executing soldiers who had surrendered. He described such actions by Russia as "serious violations" of international law, adding that they could only have been authorized at the highest levels of Russian leadership.
"These acts would not be occurring with such frequency and scale without orders or, at the very least, the consent of senior military command — which, in Russia, means the president," he said.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office told CNN that, as of early May 2025, 75 criminal investigations had been opened into the suspected executions of 268 Ukrainian prisoners of war. According to the PGO, the number of suspected executions of Ukrainian POWs has been rising since 2022.
