Road from Crimea in HIMARS range, tanks stuck in the mud, Ukraine launches investigation into perfidy. What's happening on the front line?

Ukraine launches criminal investigation into Russian surrender incident

Following the publication of a video online showing Russian soldiers in Makiivka lying dead with their hands in the air and with uniforms covered in blood, Ukraine has announced a pre-trial investigation into perfidy committed by the Russian troops. A criminal investigation has been launched under the article on “violation of laws and customs of war” (Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine told The Insider.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Russian servicemen opened fire on the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) during a simulated surrender. The Luhansk regional prosecutor's office has entered that information into the unified register of pre-trial investigations.

“According to the results of media monitoring, it became known that in the village of Makiivka in the Luhansk region, Russian military personnel opened fire on the Ukrainian defenders while imitating surrender. Such acts are prohibited by international humanitarian law. During the pre-trial investigation, measures will be taken to establish all the circumstances of this event and legal assessment will be given to all its participants.”

According to article 37 of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, it is forbidden to kill, wound or take prisoners of war by resorting to perfidy. Perfidy is defined as “acts inviting the confidence of an adversary to lead him to believe that he is entitled to, or is obliged to accord, protection under the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, with intent to betray that confidence.”

The Russian Defense Ministry accused the Ukrainian Armed Forces of war crimes based on the footage, claiming that “massacres of unarmed Russian prisoners of war” took place. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case on the murder and mistreatment of Russian POWs on the territory of the so-called “LPR.”

Earlier, Mikhail Podolyak, advisor to the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said in an interview to journalist Alexander Plushev and Tatiana Felgengauer that the Ukrainian authorities have a full version of the video depicting the shooting. According to Podolyak, some of the Russian servicemen were actually intended to surrender, while others opened fire on the Ukrainian military. Podolyak assured that the video is being investigated, but he did not publish its full version.

“When one watches a fragment of the video, one may get the impression that there is a violation of the Geneva Convention when surrendering. But when one watches the full video, it is clear that some of the Russian servicemen were really going to surrender, and some of them opened fire on the Ukrainians who were trying to carry out the procedure. Paragraph 47 of the Geneva Convention is very clear that when surrendering, if there is a threat from the surrenderers, there is no such parameter as ‘prisoners of war.’ In other words, this is an ordinary, essentially military engagement that took place.”

The situation in the border region of Belgorod

Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov of Russia’s Belgorod region has reported on casualties and deaths from explosions and shelling almost every day. For example, according to him, on November 22 a civilian died during the shelling of the town Shebekino, sustaining a lethal skull and head injury when she was thrown back by the blast wave. She died in an ambulance. Gladkov noted that during the day, shelling from the direction of Ukraine had struck the territory of the Veterans of War Hospital, causing no casualties. The shells cut the building’s facade, broke several windows, and damaged the gas pipeline in the neighboring area.

The governor also stated that two more people were killed in the village of Staroselie in Krasnoyaruzhsky district. According to Gladkov, a married couple blew themselves up with an “unidentified type of ammunition.” He added that investigative measures are being carried out to find out how the family ended up in the village. On October 27, a state of emergency was introduced in the municipality. The “yellow” level of terrorist danger in the region was extended for two more weeks – it will remain in effect until December 6.