Horrific video appears to show execution of Ukrainian soldiers by Russian troops

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will host the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany in the coming hours. It's made up of about 50 countries that focus on key military needs to try and fend off Russian attacks. The meeting comes as the U.S. announced it's currently producing more than 40,000 artillery munitions a month for Ukraine, as part of a push to increase production. Meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed a new foreign minister amid a major shakeup of his cabinet. Several other ministers also resigned this week before Zelenskiy's upcoming trip to the United States. He says his government needed new energy. CNN has obtained exclusive drone video that appears to show Ukrainian soldiers executed after they surrendered. It's one of several incidents being investigated by the United Nations. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has details and a warning. Some of the video in his report is disturbing. The scene all too common on Ukraine's imperiled eastern front. Smoke billowing, a position overrun. Ukrainian troops staggering out, appearing to surrender to advancing Russians. A brief close up on Ukrainian drone video, seen here for the first time, shows them on their knees a little to revealing. The drone operators ask each other for a better view. And then, seconds later, it is too late. The three fall to the ground, dust nearby, suggesting gunfire executed in cold blood. Ukrainian official familiar with the incident said despite hoping to be taken prisoner by the Russians, it is from near the besieged city of Krawczyk. In late August, the source said the hottest spot on the front now, where Russia is persistently advancing and follows a horrific pattern. Prosecutors say they're investigating a total of 28 cases in which 62 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after surrender on the battlefield. If prisoners of war surrender, if they show that they surrender, if they are without weapons in their hand, in their hands, then summary execution is the war crime. It has worsened in the past ten months. CNN obtaining from Ukrainian intelligence officials a detailed list of 15 incidents, most backed up by drone video or audio intercepts. Now, United Nations investigators have scrutinized many of these killings, and a UN investigative source said to me, quote, there are many that is a pattern. And the killings are war crimes individually, they said, in their opinion, and together could amount to crimes against humanity. And near the site of some of the fiercest fighting this year in Zaporizhzhia. Another Ukrainian drone filmed in May. These images that are upsetting to watch Ukrainian soldiers emerge one by one from the dugout. Ukraine's defense intelligence said they intercepted the Russian commander's order to execute or zero them and gave us this transcript. Take them down. Zero them. Take them. Zero them, the officer says. Got it. Plus, comes the reply. Once you zero them, report back, he adds, once they're all out, face down, the Russians fire Ukrainians. We spoke to left asking why? To just terrify them. Or is it simply sport for the Russians? The main reason is to made Russian soldiers believe they, it's very dangerous to surrender to Ukrainian forces because Ukrainian soldiers will kill them like Russians killing Ukrainian prisoners of war. These force them not to surrender, but go forward to their deaths. So a horror not always publicized or fully accounted for, yet being felt steadily by Ukrainians as they struggle to hold the eastern line. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has just finished addressing a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. Ramstein Air Base is made up of about 50 countries that focus on key military needs to fend off Russian attacks. The group was founded after Russia's invasion by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is also there for the meeting. Claire has been monitoring what's coming out of it. Yeah, so this is the first time I see that President Zelensky has, in person, attended a meeting of the Ramstein Contact group at the US airbase. He attended one in Brussels last year. But I think that underscores, even though this is the 24th meeting of this contact group that was set up to coordinate military aid, just how important he feels this moment is, he's really trying to leverage the momentum of this nine month old Kursk offensive, the morale boost that it's given to troops, the sign that it sends to the West that they are getting a real dividend from the weapons they have provided so far and really push for more. Here's what he what he said about that offensive and its impact so far. Dear friends, today marks one month since our army's operation began in the region of Russia. This is the borderland from which Putin was preparing to expand the war into Ukrainian territory. He was preparing to launch a new offensive against our city of Sumy, and we have turned the tables and are pushing the war into Russian through our control offensive. Today we control an area of more than 1300 square kilometers in the region, and this includes 100 settlements. A significant part of this territory was abandoned by Russian troops. They simply fled when they saw our forces approaching. Of course, a significant part of the territory was taken under control by our forces in the battle so far during the first months of our operation in the region. The Russian forces have lost about 6000 soldiers killed and wounded in Kursk only, and are the tens of thousands of Russian troops in all their war zones. Thanks to our actions, there is currently no threat that Russia will launch a new offensive operation on our territory against the city of Sumy. So what you said at the end there is significant because this backs up what we heard from an interview that Christiane Amanpour did with the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed Forces, Alexander Siskind, who said that the reason they chose Kursk in the first place, because they believed that Russia was planning to launch a new attack on the city of Sumy, which is just across the border from. Because this would be a sort of mirror action to what we saw in May, when Russia opened a new front towards the city of Kyiv and successfully pushed across the border, that although Ukraine has sort of stabilized, that front now. So that is how they are justifying this. He then goes on to make an argument, Max, that he has made before, which is that essentially what Ukraine has done in launching this operation over intercourse, because essentially made a mockery of Western fears of Russian red lines. They have invaded Russia and we see obviously stepped up Russian aerial attacks and the offensive in the on the Eastern Front ongoing, but nothing really out of the ordinary course of this war. So he's saying this, this really does undermine the whole issue of Russian red lines. He said, we need to hold to our values, not what he called in this speech red lines soaked in blood. And the U.S. has just announced more money for Ukraine, which suggests it's not completely against this strategy, which would have been unthinkable a few months ago. Yeah, I mean, this the the issue now of, the sort of the military supplies from the US to, to Ukraine is that it's not just about how much. Right. They've already provided some 55 billion or so in military aid. They are by far the biggest provider. It's about the limitations on using them on Russian territory. So we don't know exactly what's in the detail of this new aid package. But what Ukraine is now really pushing for is to be able to use long range weapons, long range missiles on targets inside Russia. So far, the US is still holding back on that. Having said that, though, that Secretary Austin did talk about the Kursk events. If they are, it seems, you know, Twains allies broadly supportive of this, just not at this point. The use of those long range weapons. Okay, Claire. Thank you.