The russians assured the coordinators that they would evacuate the wounded Ukrainian servicemen from Avdiyivka, who were shot.
The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, wrote about this in the Telegram channel, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
Lubinets noted that the exit of the Ukrainian military from Avdiyivka took place under the conditions of continuous bombardment by the enemy army, shelling of evacuation routes and vehicles was carried out. Due to the large-scale offensive of the russian occupiers, there were no chances left for the evacuation of some seriously wounded servicemen.
According to him, due to the complete encirclement of the Zenit stronghold, the command decided to contact the coordination center and organizations that are negotiating with the enemy side.
"The dialogue was about providing assistance to our seriously wounded, unarmed servicemen, in accordance with international laws and rules of conduct that protect prisoners of war. The occupiers informed the coordinators of this process that they agree to evacuate the wounded Ukrainian defenders and provide them with assistance, and in the future - to exchange them. Our servicemen received an order to save their lives. We saw what happened after these agreements on the video released by the enemy from the captured position of Zenit," he noted.
He added that the families of the defenders recognized three defenders among the killed, and there were also two defenders who were shot by russian soldiers. Regarding the sixth soldier, the information has not yet been confirmed.
Lubinets said that he sent letters to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations (UN) to record this war crime and clarify all the circumstances. He emphasized that it is not the first time that russia has grossly violated the norms of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions by executing prisoners of war.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on February 17, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, announced that, based on the operational situation around Avdiyivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen, he decided to withdraw Ukrainian units from the city and move to defenses on more favorable borders.
On February 18, it became known about two cases of shooting by the russians of Ukrainian soldiers who tried to surrender, in particular about six Ukrainian soldiers who could not get out of the Zenit position in Avdiyivka.
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