Ukraine claims Putin’s soldiers have brutally executed five Ukrainian prisoners of war in cold blood as a sickening image has emerged, seemingly showing the bodies of troops lying on the ground.

The grainy image released by the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office shows what appears to be several armed Russian soldiers standing over the prone bodies of five unarmed Ukrainians.

One of the Kremlin fighters appears to be holding a rifle pointing at the men lying on the ground.

Ukrainian authorities say the pictures show the aftermath of a Russian assault on Ukrainian positions near the village of Petrivka, in the eastern Donetsk region of the country.

It’s understood the outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian defenders of the village sought refuge in a house but were eventually captured by the attacking Russian troops earlier this month.

According to United24 Media, a Ukrainian state news outlet, the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office said: “The soldiers were forced to surrender unarmed, lie on the ground, and were then executed with automatic weapons, a grave violation of international law.

“Prosecutors have launched an investigation into this war crime, which involved deliberate murder.”

The apparent brutal slaying of Ukrainian prisoners comes as former British soldier James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, was paraded in front of TV cameras after being captured by Putin’s forces in the Kursk region of Russia.

Ukrainian troops successfully invaded the Kursk territory to the north of Ukraine in August in a humiliated coup against Putin, but in recent months they have been forced to give up nearly half the territory they had gained.

Mr Anderson is understood to have been serving in The International Legion for Defence of Ukraine, which was created at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Legion is a unit of Ukraine’s Ground Forces that consists mostly of foreign volunteers. Apart from the Legion, Ukraine recruits foreigners to other units of its army, filling squads, companies, or even battalions.

Early on in the war, Ukraine’s authorities said over 20,000 people from 52 countries came to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia‘s aggression. Ever since, the numbers of foreign fighters in the ranks of the Ukrainian military have been classified.