‘Good, but not good enough’ – major Russian pro-war bloggers try to justify the death of Ukrainian prisoners of war in Kursk

Following the alleged shooting of nine Ukrainian prisoners of war in the Kursk region, several pro-war Russian Telegram channels published posts praising Russian troops for the executions.

Some posts compared the incident to the treatment of German soldiers during World War II, in which the Red Army took no prisoners.

Russian troops reportedly shot nine Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) in Russia’s Kursk region after they surrendered. Open-source intelligence DeepState, citing its own sources from Ukraine’s 1st Tank Brigade, reported the incident on Sunday in a Telegram announcement.

The report states that the incident occurred on Thursday, October 10, when nine Ukrainian soldiers, some of them working as drone operators, came into contact with Russian troops after “thinking they were in the relative rear,” who then surrendered. and were subsequently shot.

DeepState added a photo containing a map indicating the location of the incident, as well as a top-down photo, presumably taken by a drone, of men lying nearly naked on the ground in just their underwear.

DeepState added that “additional details of the circumstances are being clarified.”

Yuri Podolyaka, who has 3.1 million subscribers, was the first to react to reports of the execution of nine Ukrainian soldiers. His post came shortly after DeepState reported the murder.

Podolyaka stated that the Ukrainian drone operators “were unable to escape” and were subsequently “surrounded and destroyed.” He dismissed outrage over the execution, suggesting that capturing the prisoners was impractical for Russian forces in that situation.

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Podolyaka further argued that drone operators are treated similarly to snipers, who, he said, “simply don’t get caught.” He appealed for support for Russian fighters, claiming that taking prisoners would put their mission at risk.

The channel “Older than Edda” (627 thousand subscribers) expressed approval of the filming, stating: “good, but not enough”.

This message was shared by “Two Majors” (1.1 million subscribers), who accused Ukrainian soldiers of committing atrocities in the region and questioned “whether they deserved to be taken prisoner”.

The “Rybar” channel (1.3 million subscribers) stated that such executions are “common on both sides during combat”.

Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, citing the DeepState report, called the alleged act “a serious violation of the Geneva Convention.”

“These actions must not go unpunished and the enemy must take full responsibility. Russia is a terrorist country that violates all the rules and customs of war. The international community should not turn a blind eye to such crimes!” Lubinets said in his Telegram announcement.

Killing prisoners of war constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

It is also unclear whether the POWs were undressed before or after the alleged shooting. Although some militaries, such as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), have in the past stripped surrendering fighters of their clothing due to what they claimed were concerns about hidden weapons and explosives, the act is also seen by human rights observers as acting to humiliate opponents.

Although combatants are required to give up their equipment and weapons upon surrender, undressing – especially in cases where underwear remains the only item of clothing – is not standard procedure during conflicts, with “humiliating and degrading” also considered a war crime.

There have been numerous recorded cases of Russian troops executing unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war.

On October 6, the 12th Special Purpose Brigade released a video showing a group of Russian soldiers executing three unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war in the village of Niu York in the Donetsk region.

In July, another video circulated on social media allegedly showed Russian troops shooting at a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war near the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia sector.