Ukraine-Russia war live: Captured soldier executed with sword by Putin’s troops, Kyiv official alleges

Vladimir Putin ’s troops have executed a Ukrainian soldier with a sword amid fierce fighting in the east of Ukraine , Kyiv has claimed.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, alleged that images had appeared on social media showing an executed Ukrainian prisoner of war with his hands tied in Donetsk .

It comes as Russian troops launched around 40 attacks on Pokrovsk overnight , a key city in eastern Ukraine key to Mr Putin’s objective of seizing the entire Donbas region, comprising of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“Photos appeared on social media of how the Russians probably executed a unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war with a sword,” Mr Lubients said.

“This action is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War. How much longer will the world watch as Russia openly demonstrates disregard for any norms and laws?”

Meanwhile, Estonian president Alar Karis has urged Nato allies to pay less attention to Mr Putin’s “red lines” and to focus on defeating his military in Ukraine.

“We probably realise now that we have to cross all of these red lines and then start forcing Russia out of Ukraine,” he told the Kyiv Independent.