U.S. says credible reports indicate Russians executed surrendering Ukrainians

The U.S. has “credible information” that a Russian military unit in Ukraine’s Donetsk region “executed Ukrainians who were attempting to surrender, rather than take them into custody,” a top American official told the United Nations Wednesday.

What they’re saying: “If true, this would be a violation of a core principle of the laws of war,” said Beth Van Schaack, the U.S. ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice in remarks to the UN Security Council.

Specifically, “the prohibition against the summary execution of civilians and combatants who are hors de combat by virtue of surrender, injury, or other forms of incapacitation,” she said.

Van Schaack added that the U.S. also has “credible reports of individuals killed execution-style with their hands bound; bodies showing signs of torture; horrific accounts of sexual violence against women and girls.”