HARROWING footage of nine surrendering Ukrainian troops being "shot dead" has added to the long list of Putin's alleged war crimes.
The drone footage, which has not yet been independently verified, is thought to be the third cold-blooded execution of unarmed Ukrainians in the last few weeks.
The footage is allegedly filmed near the village of Ivanivske, Bakhmut, in the occupied Donetsk region.
In the horrifying video, Ukrainian soldiers can be seen dropping their weapons before crawling out of their frontline trench.
They lift their arms to prove that they pose no threat, and drop to the floor with their hands behind their heads.
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In harrowing scenes, which The Sun has decided not to show, the Russian forces then open a barrage of machine gun fire onto the defenceless soldiers laying on the ground.
The video began circulating online when the open-source intelligence site, Deep State, posted it on their Telegram channel.
The volunteer-led organisation wrote: "Those who were shot are probably fighters of the 92nd OSHBr or one of the units assigned to them.
"It was hoped yesterday that the boys from the position were alive and in captivity, but footage released today shows the execution of Defense Forces fighters."
The channel added: "The Russians are freaks.
“They understand only force and only when they are treated the way they are treated.
“It is a difficult task to motivate the enemy to stop doing this, because anyone can be captured.”
Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to express his outrage.
He said: “Russians shoot Ukrainian soldiers [who] surrendered into captivity by Ivanivske village near Bakhmut.
“Evil must be stopped and punished….
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Telegram channel No to Crime said of the alleged butchery: “A video of yet another war crime committed by the Russian occupiers was published online.
“On the outskirts of the village of Ivanovske near Bakhmut, they shot 9 Ukrainian soldiers who had surrendered.”
While Russian opposition channel February Morning reported: “The invaders shot 9 unarmed Ukrainian prisoners in the Bakhmut direction.”
It stated: “This is at least the third shooting of prisoners in a month.
“The barbarity of Putin's nonhumans knows no bounds.”
The prosecutor's office in Ukraine has launched an investigation into the video which was likely recorded on February 24, reported Ukrainian Pravda.
Russia has been accused of purposely ignoring the international humanitarian law, with the claims that it has carried out a premeditated murder.
The video will need to undergo checks and verification before it can be used as evidence of a war crime, but initially the shooting appears an appalling violation of the rules of conflict.
According to the prosecutor's office, the aggressor state "deliberately finished off wounded and unarmed Ukrainian soldiers".
It adds that 19 criminal proceedings are currently being investigated regarding the murder of 45 Ukrainian prisoners of war.
The deadly incident has been condemned by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets.
“Another war crime allegedly took place on 24 February 2024 in the Bakhmut district,” he said.
“The video we obtained shows Ukrainian soldiers surrendering: their hands were raised in the air, showing that they were unarmed and did not pose a threat.
“The Russians were supposed to take them prisoner, but instead mercilessly shot them.
“The exact number of Ukrainians executed by the Russians is not known, but there were probably at least seven.
“They were members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“Such an execution is a war crime.
“We also now know from which military unit of the Russian army the soldiers who mercilessly executed the Ukrainians were.”
Lubinets added: “This case must be recorded as another violation of international humanitarian law by Russia.
“I will immediately send official letters to the UN and the ICRC to ensure that the organisations record and publicly acknowledge that the Russian military is killing Ukrainian prisoners.
“For the Russian army, the Geneva Conventions, rules and customs of war mean nothing.
“They act according to their own unspoken ‘conventions’, ‘rules’ and ‘customs’ - cruelty, meanness, and lowliness.
“Such killings of prisoners of war are not isolated cases. They must be punished.”
According to Deep State, Putin's cronies have executed "a lot of shootings lately" but only a slim fraction have been made public knowledge.
But this isn't the first time Putin's soldiers have been caught on camera.
In December, a video emerged of the Ukrainian paratroopers kneeling with their hands behind their heads on the fronline in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region.
Despite the poor quality of the aerial footage, the horrifying moment that the troops are murdered in cold blood remains visible.
In Ukraine, the incident is being viewed as evidence of how Vladimir Putin’s forces “are simply not human”.
Earlier footage showed the harrowing moment “two surrendering Ukrainian troops are mercilessly gunned down by Russian troops”.
The chilling video shows one unarmed Ukrainian soldier emerge from a trench near Avdiivka with his hands above his head.
He evidently obeys instructions shouted by the Russian invaders and lies face down on the ground.
A second Ukrainian troop from the 45th separate rifle battalion is unfortunate enough to stumble into the scene, and is rapidly shot in a hail of machine gun fire.
As the first soldier gets up to see the trail of destruction the Russians have left, he is also gunned to death in a cloud of smoke.
