US monitoring Ukrainian war crimes after videos of Russian POW being executed surface

The United States is monitoring allegations of Ukrainian forces summarily executing Russian troops, Washington's envoy for war crimes said on Monday. Russia's defense ministry had raised the matter on Friday after videos allegedly showing Ukrainian soldiers executing Russian prisoners of war started circulating on social media.

Beth Van Schaack, the US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, said all parties should face consequences if they commit abuses in the conflict.

"We are obviously tracking that quite closely," she told reporters during a telephone briefing.

"It's really important to emphasize that the laws of war apply to all parties equally: both the aggressor state and the defender state and this is in equal measure," she said.

"All parties to the conflict must abide by international law or face the consequences."

The videos in question apparently show Russian soldiers lying on the ground after reportedly surrendering. An automatic gunfire can be heard and the video shows around 12 bodies.

Van Schaack further said Russia has exhibited an enormous scale of criminality compared to the allegations against Ukrainian troops. However, both countries responded differently.

"Russia inevitably responds with propaganda, denial, mis- and dis-information, whereas Ukrainian authorities have generally acknowledged abuses and have denounced them and have pledged to investigate them."

Ukraine's deputy prime minister has reportedly said Ukraine will investigate the incident.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, alleged that the footage seems to show "a staged capture" where Russian forces were not truly surrendering.

Ever since the military intervention in Ukraine began, Moscow has been accused of committing several atrocities, including war crimes. This includes a system of so-called filtration camps to move Ukrainians in occupied areas into Russia. Russia has denied all such allegations and accused Kyiv and its allies of fabricating the claims.

(With inputs from agencies)