(NEWS UPDATE USA FAST) --- The troops emerge and stagger into the middle of the dusty track, then onto their knees, their hands placed on their heads. In a matter of seconds, the Ukrainian drone footage shows, they lie face down, unmoving, with dust curling around them.
Exclusively obtained video by CNN- filmed in late August fighting near the embattled city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine - shows what appears to be an execution by Russian troops of three surrendering Ukrainians after their trench was overrun.
The incident was described by a Ukrainian official who asked that some details be held to protect the identity of the unit involved, but is part of a pattern of apparent executions, with each month this year seeming to bring more.
Ukrainian defense intelligence sources have provided CNN a list of 15 cases since November -- most supported either by drone video or audio intercepts -- in which they say surrendering Ukrainian troops were killed by the Russians on the front lines, rather than being taken prisoner.
The prosecutor general of Ukraine told CNN his office was investigating 28 such incidents since the start of the war, in which a total of 62 Ukrainian servicemembers had died.
Footage from Pokrovsk region seems to reflect how relentlessly brutal the tactics of the Russian military continue to be as it advances in Ukraine's east.
Drone footage from eastern Ukraine last month captures the moment three Ukrainian soldiers stagger onto a dusty track and kneel down, hands on their heads, seeking to surrender.
The grinding Moscow advance on the Ukrainian strategic military hub of Pokrovsk has continued unabated, even as Kyiv's recent gains in the Russian border region of Kursk had brought hopes the Kremlin would be forced to divert troops to defend Russia's own borders.
Ukrainian prosecutors told CNN they believe the apparent killings constitute war crimes and are part of an orchestrated policy by the Kremlin. "If prisoners of war surrender, if they show that they surrender, if they are without weapons in their hands, then summary execution is a war crime," Andriy Kostin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, told CNN.
The video shows all three men falling to the ground, killed by Russian forces rather than being taken prisoner
Kostin added that such crimes had been committed throughout various Ukrainian regions, by the use of several units, giving Kyiv "an opportunity to claim that such policy could be elevated to crimes against humanity. This policy is orchestrated by Kremlin. It's an order of specific commanders."
The Russian Ministry of Defense has so far not responded to CNN's request for comment on the claims.
The appearance of videos depicting what appears to be an increasingly used Russian tactic has posed a dilemma for Ukrainian commanders faced with the unenviable task of warning their troops and the world of Russian savagery at the risk of sapping already drained Ukrainian morale.
The Ukrainian official who provided the Pokrovsk drone footage said their unit was aware of a number of similar cases on the front lines that have not been publicized or investigated.
Ukrainian soldiers are seen on a combat mission in the Pokrovsk direction, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on August 13, 2024.
Some of the recent cases have been made public, including a unit in Toretsk claiming on Telegram that it had drone video, which it published Tuesday, of three Ukrainian troops coming out of a basement, hands raised in a surrender, and then being gunned down by the Russian troops. Prosecutors of the Donetsk region said they had opened an investigation into "violation of the laws and customs of war, combined with intentional murder.
Several Russian servicemen have gone on trial accused of such killings, including one in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian prosecutors allege the Russian was a convict, released from his sentence for theft in November to serve in the Russian military's 127th motorised rifle division. Prosecutors have released drone footage supporting their claim the Russian shot a Ukrainian soldier in January as he emerged, arms raised, from his trench near Priyutne and then knelt.
Another drone video obtained by CNN, also from Zaporizhzhia region, reveals how in May of this year, near the heavily contested village of Robotyne, Russian troops asked three Ukrainian soldiers to lie face down after their dugout was overrun. An audio transcript of intercepts released to CNN by Ukraine's defence intelligence purportedly reveal the order from a Russian commander, nicknamed "Turk," to his subordinate in the field, "Maloy," to kill the prisoners.
TURK: Take them f***king down, f***king zero them, zero them.
MALOY: Got it, copy.
TURK: When you zero them report back.
The drone video shows that when all three Ukrainians are out of the trench and lying face down, the Russians shoot.
Meanwhile, with Russian President Vladimir Putin facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court over his alleged role in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, Kyiv is aggressively pursuing genocide claims against Moscow. The prosecutor general, Kostin, suggested the systematic nature of these alleged battlefield executions meant they could feature as part of the wider genocide case.
In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz, visited Ukraine after an invitation from Kyiv partly to investigate reports on extrajudicial killings during combat.
A source in one UN investigation described to CNN how some of the apparent executions of Ukrainian soldiers had fallen under their scrutiny. "There are many. There is a pattern. It suggests complacency if not orders to give no quarter," the source said, using a synonym for showing no mercy.
"The killings are war crimes individually," the source said, "and together could amount to crimes against humanity."