Balanced News: UN says at least 40 prisoners of war executions on both sides of Ukraine conflict

The UN Human Rights office has accused both Russian and Ukrainian forces of dozens of summary or extrajudicial  prisoners of war executions since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than one year ago. The report was based on interviews of about 400 POWs — about half Ukrainians who were released — and half with Russians held captive in Ukraine. The UN, which has had a monitoring team in place since the conflict in the Donbas erupted in 2014, has repeatedly indicated its findings are from confirmed cases, and typically understate the actual toll. It has documented some 40 extrajudicial executions. Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating some cases, yet none have been taken to court for the moment. Six hundred and twenty-one cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions of civilians by Russian Armed Forces have been documented. Five of these civilians were boys between 14 and 17 years old who had been “forcibly disappeared” by Russian Armed Forces and subjected to “ill-treatment and torture.