the military of the Russian Federation is probably hiding in battle with prisoners

The Russian military very likely used captured Ukrainian soldiers as human shields during the battle. Journalists of the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty came to this conclusion after studying a video shot by a drone in the Zaporozhye region, where active hostilities are taking place.

According to reports, the 19-minute video shows how the advancing group of soldiers of the Russian army is leading unarmed people (most likely, judging by the uniforms, these are Ukrainian soldiers) under the muzzles of machine guns towards the positions of the Armed Forces. At the same time, the unarmed keep their hands up, and the Russian military periodically shoot from behind them. As a result, a battle ensues between the advancing and defending soldiers of the Ukrainian army, as a result of which one of the probable prisoners remains lying on the ground. At the same time, according to the video, a soldier of the Russian army opened fire in his direction.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that the forces of the 234th Assault Regiment were fighting on the side of the Russian army in the direction where the video was shot.

In turn, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmitry Lubynets, commenting on the published footage, said that this is the first such video that he has seen during the war. He emphasized that the Geneva Convention “directly prohibits the use of prisoners of war to participate in hostilities” and that “prisoners after being granted official status must be kept in a specially created camp far from the front line.”

• In Ukraine, about 50,000 criminal cases are being investigated for alleged crimes, including the murder of prisoners committed by the Russian military. The Ministry of Defense of Russia rejects any such accusations.