A Ukrainian ombudsman is claiming videos have emerged showing Russian troops executing prisoners of war in Kursk, a region in which Moscow is making advances and where President Vladimir Putin visited on Thursday.
Concretely, Dmytro Lubinets said the incident took place in the village of Kazachya Loknya, and that he has sent official letters to the UN and the Red Cross to document them as a war crime, Nexta TV reported.
“Once again, we see the cynical disregard for international humanitarian law by the Russian army. Those who give the orders and carry out these atrocities must face severe consequences,” he said.
Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Kursk to boost troop morale, telling them the goal is to “completely liberate” the region taken over by Kyiv during a counter-offensive last year. Russian troops later announced they captured the town of Sudzha, the largest settlement captured by Ukraine.
“Our task in the near future, in the shortest possible time frame, is to decisively defeat the enemy entrenched in the Kursk region,” Putin said. He is expected to give a press conference with Belarusian Preisdent Alexander Lukashenko later on Thursday.
Russian officials have been dismissing the ceasefire proposal brokered by the United States and accepted by Ukraine in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov saying the plan is “nothing else than a temporary respite for the Ukrainian military, nothing more.”
“Steps that imitate peaceful actions, it seems to me, are of no use to anyone,” Ushakov added, saying he conveyed the country’s position to U.S. national security adviser Mike Walz in a phone conversation on Wednesday.
Putin is reportedly eager to drag out ceasefire talks with Ukraine in order to get the best terms possible. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the U.S. proposal is unacceptable for Moscow. The Kremlin has said in the past that for Russia to stop the fighting, the parameters of a more long-term agreement needs to be outlined.
Putin has said in the past that short-term ceasefires are not the way to end the war: “We don’t need a truce, we need a long-term peace secured by guarantees for the Russian Federation and its citizens,” he said in December, adding that “how to ensure these guarantees” was a “difficult question.”
The Russian president said last June that in order to achieve peace Ukraine must officially drop any ambitions to join NATO and withdraw from the regions claimed by the country, which represent about a fifth of its territory.
Originally published on Latin Times
