The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor's Office has confirmed the execution of two Ukrainian servicemen taken prisoner by Russian forces during combat operations in Donetsk Oblast. According to the office, the incident took place on September 2, 2026, in a tree line near the city of Dobropillia. Both soldiers belonged to the National Guard of Ukraine and, at the time of their capture, were carrying out a combat mission at a firing position. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing an official statement from the prosecutor's office.
Circumstances of the Capture and Execution
According to the version set out in the statement, the two National Guard soldiers were firing from a prepared firing position, after which they were surrounded and captured by representatives of the Russian Armed Forces. Subsequently, according to law enforcement data, the disarmed prisoners were executed: Russian soldiers shot them with automatic weapons. The prosecutor's office emphasizes that at the time of the shooting, the Ukrainian soldiers posed no threat and were in the status of prisoners of war, which rules out any combat-related classification of their deaths.
Criminal Proceedings and Investigative Actions
A pre-trial investigation has already been opened under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — violation of the laws and customs of war resulting in the death of persons. Investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are carrying out urgent procedural and operational measures aimed at establishing all the circumstances of the shooting, as well as identifying the specific Russian servicemen involved in the crime. The office notes that the collection of evidence is being conducted taking into account that the scene of the incident is located in an area of active combat operations.
A Systematic Practice, Not an Isolated Incident
The prosecutor's office explicitly states that the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war by Russian soldiers is far from the first such episode and is, in their assessment, a systematic criminal practice. Thus, as early as July 2026, in Donetsk Oblast, according to law enforcement data, a Ukrainian prisoner of war was executed immediately after an interrogation: the criminal order to shoot the disarmed defender was issued directly upon the completion of the interrogation. In addition to extrajudicial shootings on the battlefield, captured Ukrainians, according to available data, are subjected to torture and murder in places of detention.
Legal Classification and Statistics on Captivity
The prosecutor's office classifies the killing of prisoners of war as a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions and a serious international crime. The scale of the problem in Russian captivity is illustrated by data from the Ombudsman of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets: the death in captivity of at least 375 Ukrainians has been officially confirmed, and investigators have documented nearly 700 different forms of torture, which, according to the ombudsman's assessment, Russia applies to prisoners systematically. These figures, as human rights defenders emphasize, represent the lower bound of actual losses.
