Russia reportedly executes POW with sword, Kyiv appeals to UN, Red Cross.

Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Sept.

17 that he had appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations in response to a photo that allegedly shows the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) by Russia. On the morning of Sept.

17, a photo of an apparently executed Ukrainian soldier with a sword in his chest and the inscription "For Kursk" appeared on social media. Remnants of gray tape are visible on the soldier's hand.

The photo appears to show a bloodied body lying on the road against the backdrop of damaged vehicles and a house with broken windows. The exact location is unclear. The Kyiv Independent could not verify the photo.

"The level of barbarism and bloodthirstiness is impossible to comprehend," Lubinets wrote on his Telegram channel. The ombudsman stressed that such actions are a flagrant violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. There have been multiple reports of Ukrainian POWs being tortured or killed while in Russian captivity since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.

As of September, the Prosecutor General's Office said 28 criminal investigations were underway regarding the execution of 62 Ukrainian POWs. In early September, Lubinets reported another case of the alleged execution of a Ukrainian soldier, which was recorded on video. The footage allegedly showed a Russian soldier who asks a Ukrainian military service member if he wants to "say the last word, pray before dying," and then shoots him with a rifle three times.

Russian POWs speak about their capture in Kursk Oblast

The Kyiv Independent got exclusive access to the POWs captured during the Kursk operation and interviewed them about their motivations and experience of fighting for Russia.