Russian soldier ‘admits executing Ukrainian prisoners of war by cutting their throats in intercepted phone call’

• Conversation allegedly shows Russian Yevgeny Suchko admitting to killings 
• Wagner mercenary chief orders men to stop taking prisoners and ‘kill everyone’ 
• WARNING: Graphic content  

A Russian solider admitted executing Ukrainian prisoners of war by cutting their throats in a phone call, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) said.

In the intercepted phone conversation, the serviceman, identified by the SBU as Yevgeny Suchko, who was deployed to Ukraine in 2022, can be heard describing in detail how he slit the throats of Ukrainians. 

The 28-year-old soldier says in the intercepted call that there is ‘no point’ in keeping prisoners of war and that they ‘need to be disposed of’. 

More than 80,000 Russian war crimes are currently being investigated in the conflict, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office. 

The SBU said it was working on bringing ‘every war criminal from Russia’ to justice and ensuring that they receive ‘well-deserved’ punishment.  

The serviceman, identified by the SBU as Yevgeny Suchko, who was deployed to Ukraine in 2022, can be heard in the intercepted phone call describing in detail how he slit the throats of Ukrainians (file image)

More than 80,000 Russian war crimes are currently being investigated in the conflict, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office (pictured, Putin on April 27)

Yevgeny Suchko can be heard in the phone call, intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence, saying that: ‘People who are prisoners of war… there is no point in keeping them. Well, because we get all the information from them. There is no point in keeping them anymore… they need to be disposed of.’

The Kyiv Independent said the solider added: ‘A person has to be stabbed a little bit. But this is not the first time for me. I don’t give a f*ck.’ 

The intercepted voice message comes just days after leaked Telegram messages appeared to show the Chief of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, telling fighter in Bakhmut not to take any more prisoners. 

The orders came after a video was shared that purports to show a Ukrainian solider killing a wounded Wagner fighter.   

The channel did not say where the recording came from and there is no way of verifying its authenticity. 

‘We will kill everyone on the battlefield. Take no more prisoners of war!’ Prigozhin said in an audio recording on Sunday.

‘We don’t know the name of our guy shot by Ukrainians,’ Prigozhin said, adding that under international law his group was obliged to ‘take care, treat, not hurt’ any prisoners of war.

On April 17, Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets told Ukrainska Pravda publication that his office had been sent gruesome videos allegedly showing the executions of Ukrainian prisoners of war. 

Videos on social media also appear to show a Russian fighter cutting off the head of a Ukrainian prisoner. 

The barbaric footage shows a masked man violently sawing at the neck of a prisoner wearing Ukrainian insignia who is trapped beneath him on the ground

The victim is seen writhing on the forest floor, screaming ‘it hurts!’ and ‘stop!’ as his murderer, wearing a white ribbon associated with Russian forces, hacks at his arteries with the steel blade.

A voice from another apparent Russian fighter taunts the killer to behead and break the spine of the stricken man.

‘Send it to Kyiv, *****,’ a voice says in a foul-mouthed rant. ‘Cut it off, *****! Break the spine!’

‘What, you never cut a head off, *****? Do it, do it, do it, *****!’

The video concludes with the executioner holding the decapitated, bloodied head up to the camera as he is told to ‘bag it and send it to the commander’.

The footage, which was shared earlier this month, sparked fury in Kyiv, with President Zelensky expressing his disgust in a video in which he appears visibly shaken. 

Ukrainian soldier kills a Wounded Wagner fighter with an AK-74 in the outskirts of Bakhmut

The president said in recorded remarks: ‘This video – the execution of a Ukrainian captive – the world must see it. This is a video of Russia as it is – what kind of creatures they are.

‘There are no people for them. A son, a brother, a husband – someone’s child.’

The video showed the ‘new norm’ that Putin’s Russia wanted to impose, he said.

‘Such a habit of destroying life. This is not an accident. This is not an episode. There was the case in Bucha.

‘Don’t expect it to be forgotten, that time will pass. We are not going to forget anything. Neither are we going to forgive the murderers.

‘There will be legal responsibility for everything. The defeat of terror is necessary.

‘No-one will understand if the leaders don’t react. Action is required now!’ he concluded.

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of killing prisoners of war since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.  

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