Russia fired on its own troops after they surrendered during a failed assault in the Donbas Region, Kyiv has said.
The 33rd Separate Mechanized Brigade, part of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, said on Saturday night that seven Russian fighters were trying to give themselves up into Ukrainian captivity when they were fired on by their own army.
Their unit had been trying to carry out an operation near the village of Kostiantynivka but suffered serious losses when Kyiv used First-Person View (FPV) drones, the Ukrainian Military Center said in an update on Sunday.
The group reportedly came out of a forest belt with their hands raised, to follow a drone leading them to where the Ukrainian military was stationed before they came under fire.
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The 33rd Brigade said that Russian soldiers “made the right decision to surrender” before the Russian army “fired at their own.”
“Several of them were accurately mowed down,” it added. “Not all of them got into the good hands of our brigade.”
It is unclear exactly how many died and how many managed to surrender.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry via email for comment.
Earlier this month, Vladimir Putin’s newly formed special volunteer unit created to “maintain law and order” in the Kursk region amid an ongoing Ukrainian incursion is reported to have opened fire on Russian troops in the area.
Alexei Smirnov, acting head of Kursk, had announced the creation of the armed volunteer unit called “BARS-Kursk” on August 29, saying they would “ensure security” in the region.
In August, a Russian unit boasted on social media about a successful drone-on-drone strike, only to discover later that they had mistakenly shot down one of their own unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The unit had used a DJI Mavic drone to shoot down what they initially believed to be a Ukrainian UAV in Avdiivka but the target was actually a Zala ISR drone, which belonged to the Russian military.
During the first quarter of this year, the British Ministry of Defence issued an intelligence update that found that a Russian Su-27 jet that was downed over Crimea on March 28 may have been the victim of friendly fire caused by a “lack of situation awareness and coordination.”
It said there have “been previous unconfirmed reports of similar instances of friendly fire occurring, usually following periods of Ukrainian action against Russian forces.” Consequently, “[t]here is a realistic possibility that rather than a technical issue, the increased pressure and tension amongst Russian air defence operators induced by the fear of further Ukrainian action leads to them inadvertently engaging their own pilots and aircraft.”
It concluded: “This event, and others if confirmed, likely highlight the lack of situational awareness and coordination between elements of the Russian armed forces, while further demonstrating the second-order impact of Ukrainian actions.”