Ukrainian prosecutors said on Saturday they were investigating allegations Russian forces executed four Ukrainian prisoners of war and said a possible suspect for the killings was in custody.
鈥楶rosecutors have initiated a pre-trial investigation... related to the deliberate killing of four prisoners of war,鈥� read a post on the Telegram channel of the prosecutor鈥檚 office in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
鈥楾he investigation was initiated by interrogations of Russian prisoners of war, during which testimonies were obtained regarding the commission of the crime,鈥� read the post, citing chief prosecutor Oleksandr Filchakov.
The servicemen are alleged to have been killed on the orders of Russian military command over the summer at an aggregate plant in Vovchansk, which has been the focus of fierce fighting.
In May, Russia launched an offensive into the Kharkiv region where Vovchansk is located鈥攁n area they had first occupied and then withdrawn from at the start of the invasion in 2022.
鈥楾his case is unique as the person who may become a suspect in the said proceedings is also in Ukrainian captivity,鈥� Filchakov said.
If proven guilty of the war crime, the alleged perpetrator faces life imprisonment.
The Ukrainian prosecutor general鈥檚 office said earlier this month it had information on the execution on the battlefield of 鈥榓t least 92 Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered鈥�.
This included allegations that Russian forces executed 16 POWs near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub for the Ukrainian army.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of killing POWs since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian forces said on Saturday they had captured another village in eastern Ukraine near the town of Kurakhove, as Moscow continued its steady advance.
Russian forces 鈥榣iberated the settlement of Zhelannoye Vtoroye鈥� in Ukraine鈥檚 Donetsk region, the defence ministry said, using the Russian name for the village of Zhelanne Druge.
The village is located close to Pokrovsk, a logistics hub for the Ukrainian army that is threatened by the advance of Russian troops.
Russian-installed authorities in the city of Gorlivka also said on Saturday that 11 civilians had been wounded by shelling from the Ukrainian side.
Separately, the defence ministry said Russia had downed 10 Ukrainian drones overnight over its Belgorod, Voronezh and Kursk regions, which border Ukraine.
Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram that a civilian was wounded by a Ukrainian drone.
On the Ukrainian side, two people were killed by Russian strikes in the Zaporizhzhia region in the south of the country, regional governor Ivan Fyodorov said on Telegram.
Russia launched its Ukraine offensive in February 2022 and currently occupies 18 percent of the country.
After a series of setbacks in 2022, Russian forces largely held ground in 2023 and have been advancing further in 2024 against often outgunned and outmanned Ukrainian forces.
