Russian troops have reportedly shot nine Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia’s Kursk region after they surrendered.

The open-source intelligence agency DeepState reported the incident in a Telegram announcement on Sunday, citing Ukraine’s 1st Armored Brigade’s own sources.

It said the incident occurred on Thursday, October 10, when nine Ukrainian soldiers, some of whom worked as drone operators, came into contact with Russian troops after “believing they were in the relative hinterland.” then surrendered and were subsequently killed by gunfire.

DeepState added a photo that included a map showing the location of the incident as well as an overhead photo, believed to have been taken by a drone, showing men lying naked on the ground in their underwear and surrounded by troops in military uniforms .

DeepState added that “further details of the circumstances will be clarified.”

Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets described the alleged act as “a gross violation of the Geneva Convention,” citing the DeepState report.

“These acts must not go unpunished and the enemy must bear full responsibility. Russia is a terrorist country that violates all the rules and customs of war. The international community should not turn a blind eye to such crimes!” Lubinets said in his Telegram announcement.

The killing of prisoners of war is a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

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It is also unclear whether the POWs were stripped of their clothing before or after the alleged shooting. While some militaries, such as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), have in the past stripped clothing from surrendered combatants over alleged concerns about hidden weapons and explosives, the act is also seen by human rights monitors as a threat to attempt to humiliate opponents .

While combatants are required to surrender their equipment and weapons upon surrender, stripping – especially when underwear is the only item of clothing – is not standard procedure in conflicts, and “degrading and degrading treatment” is also considered a war crime.

Numerous cases of Russian troops executing unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war have been recorded.

On October 6, the 12th Special Brigade released a video showing a group of Russian soldiers executing three unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war in the village of New York in the Donetsk region.

In July, another video purportedly circulated on social media showing Russian troops shooting a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war near the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhia sector.