Ukraine has accused the Russian army of executing hundreds of its prisoners of war since 2022 under a deliberate policy, with Kyiv tracking more than 900 military personnel killed in over 340 separate incidents. A Ukrainian intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Agence France-Presse, said the documented cases may represent only 25 to 40 percent of the total number of executions, suggesting the true scale could be significantly higher. The allegations, which Moscow rejects, have drawn renewed attention to the treatment of prisoners in the conflict now in its fourth year.
Under the Geneva Conventions, soldiers are considered prisoners of war and afforded legal protection from the moment they issue a clear surrender. A United Nations report published in June verified 129 executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war, with the organisation having previously sounded the alarm over a marked increase in such cases last year. Andriy Atamantchuk, from the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office, said Kyiv has opened 116 criminal investigations into the killings of 306 Ukrainian servicemen since the start of the full-scale invasion. He described the pattern as stemming from a Russian policy that has effectively encouraged and enabled such crimes, with commanders issuing orders to that effect. Russian authorities did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.
Separately, Russia's transport ministry has acknowledged it may have to divert cargo away from the Sea of Azov as Ukraine continues to pound Russian shipping in the area. The commander of Ukraine's drone forces said on Tuesday that Ukrainian strikes had hit 116 vessels over the past nine days, including several tankers and cargo ships. He said the objective was to damage Russia's shadow fleet and to limit fuel supplies to Moscow-controlled Crimea. Ukraine's military also reported striking two Russian oil refineries in the Bashkortostan and Krasnodar regions, causing fires at the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat complex and the Afipsky oil refinery. Russian authorities confirmed both fires.
In Sevastopol, one of the largest cities in Russian-occupied Crimea, local authorities announced on Tuesday that power supplies would be limited following Ukrainian attacks. The Moscow-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said electricity would be supplied for two hours followed by six-hour outages. Crimea has already introduced restrictions on gasoline usage because of fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries and logistics infrastructure. Ukraine's air force reported shooting down five out of eight ballistic missiles and 108 out of 135 drones launched by Russia overnight into Tuesday, describing it as an increased interception rate. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian attacks still damaged 16 sites in the capital, including a school and a business, while city officials reported several fires. He added that seven people were injured in the eastern Kharkiv region and three in the northern Chernihiv region, and called on European allies to pass their latest sanctions package this week.
In a related development, Kyrgyzstan's government on Tuesday indefinitely banned exports of gasoline, diesel fuel and oil in response to fuel shortages in Russia, from which the Central Asian country sources the vast majority of its fuel needs. Kyrgyzstan has appealed to neighbours for help and sought diesel and jet fuel from Belarus and China. Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops marched down the Champs-Élysées as part of the Bastille Day parade in Paris, receiving the loudest cheers from crowds along the tree-lined avenue. Ukrainian co-pilots trained in France were on board two French Mirage 2000B fighter jets that flew over the parade. President Zelenskyy attended as guest of honour alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. In a political development, Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko formally resigned in parliament on Tuesday as part of a government reshuffle previously announced by Zelenskyy. Parliament is expected to vote on a replacement on Thursday, while opposition lawmakers have called for Zelenskyy to further explain the overhaul of his government.
