The United Nations on Monday warned that Russian troops have been increasingly killing captured Ukrainian soldiers over recent months, echoing growing allegations from officials in Kyiv.
The UN monitoring mission in Ukraine said that, since the end of August, it had "recorded 79 such executions in 24 separate incidents" committed by Russian soldiers.
"These incidents did not occur in a vacuum. Public figures in the Russian Federation have explicitly called for inhumane treatment, and even execution, of captured Ukrainian military personnel," said Danielle Bell, head of the mission.
"Combined with broad amnesty laws, such statements have the potential to incite or encourage unlawful behavior," she added.
The UN monitoring mission's statement also said that it recorded one execution of a "wounded and incapacitated" Russian soldier by the Ukrainian armed forces last year.
Ukrainian human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets regularly calls on the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross to investigate evidence of killings of captured Ukrainian soldiers.
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