Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has identified the Russian military unit that used three civilians from Pokrovsk – a man, a woman and a 13-year-old child – as “human shields” during an assault on the city earlier this month, according to an intercepted call released on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
The SBU published an intercepted radio call in which a Russian commander ordered his subordinates to force civilians to walk ahead of them during the urban assault.
In the recording, a Russian voice instructs: “A woman, a man and a child, 13 years old. The ones you were told about – the civilians. Take them with you… take them with you to the clearing, let them go in front of you and check. Do you copy?”
Pokrovsk is a frontline city in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where some of the fiercest and most destructive urban fighting of the current offensive is taking place.
According to the investigation, the incident occurred on Nov. 10, when assault groups of the 1st Motorized Rifle Battalion of Russia’s 506th Motorized Rifle Regiment attempted to storm the southeastern outskirts of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
SBU investigators say that during heavy fighting in residential areas, a Russian assault group seized three local residents and then received orders to push them ahead of the advancing troops. The civilians, the SBU reports, were forced to enter buildings first and “check” them for potential fire – effectively serving as a human shield in case of Ukrainian resistance.
The agency said the actions clearly violate Article 28 of the Geneva Convention, which prohibits the use of civilians to shield military operations, and constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.
Based on the documented evidence, SBU investigators have opened criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code (violations of the laws and customs of war).
The SBU, together with prosecutors from the Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office, continues to gather evidence, identify all Russian personnel involved and prepare materials for future accountability.
Last month Kyiv Post reported that Ukraine’s Military Intelligence (HUR) on Tuesday, Oct. 21, released a radio intercept suggesting Russian forces are being ordered to kill civilians in Pokrovsk trying to leave the combat zone.
In the recording, a field commander of the 30th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, part of Russia’s 2nd Combined Arms Army, issues a direct order:
“Monitor the road, don’t let anyone through. Understood? Anyone with civilians carrying large bags – shoot immediately.”
The brigade is currently operating near Pokrovsk, according to HUR.
The agency said the intercepted order is part of a broader pattern of systemic violence.
“Systematic executions and torture of prisoners of war, killings of civilians, and extrajudicial executions of their own troops once again prove that war crimes are a deliberate and targeted policy of the Russian aggressor state,” HUR said in a statement.
Ukrainian intelligence agencies have previously intercepted calls that depict psychological stress and disregard for human life among Russian troops.
In 2023, Kyiv Post interviewed “Maria” who worked as one of Ukrainian intelligence’s professional eavesdroppers and spoke about the shocking things she hears.
Russia regularly dismisses the content of intercepted calls published by Ukraine, saying they are fake, a claim Kyiv Post put to Maria. She said: “They are all are real even though they might seem insane. Sometimes I can’t believe the words I’m hearing myself, but we have what we have.”
Kyiv Post regularly reposts some of the most revealing and shocking intercepted conversations. Check out more intercepted conversations:
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‘We Need to Take Odesa’ – Russian Woman Cites Fake ‘Biolabs’ to Justify Mykolaiv Attacks
‘The F**king Guys Are Dying!’ – Intercepted Call Reveals Chaos and Command Breakdown in Russian Army