No, Ukrainian troop will not kill them, though there are rumors of prisoner executions, but those are exception rather than rule, and are under investigation. The Ukrainian government obviously don’t want them to happen, but it’s possible that after seeing what Russians did in the areas they controlled, some groups take revenge on them.
On the other hand, such executions would serve Russian propaganda, many people believe Russia is making the staged photos and videos. Especially after they’ve accused the West of forging the Bucha evidence. The Russians have a habit of blaming others of what they’re doing themselves.
You really don’t want to kill POWs. And for the most part, the Ukrainian military seems to follow that strategy.
First, Ukraine want Russians to surrender. If they kill the soldiers who surrender then no Russian will want to surrender. If they Ukrainian troop kill them, then Russian force will all fight to the death rather than surrender, and that wouldn’t help Ukraine.
Russian troops surrendering to Ukrainians means a good thing, Ukraine would receive valuable information and equipment from the soldiers who surrender. Captured POWs are invaluable for intelligence information.
Also, there is the optics – much of the world views Ukraine as the good force and Russia as the bad force. Killing POW’s would go a long way to change that perception and Ukraine would not want that to happen.
The Ukrainians are also smart enough to know that if they kill the Russian POW’s, the Russians will kill theirs too.
Above all, killing POWs is a war crime. The Ukranian officer who ordered the killing and soldiers who carried it out would be subjecting themselves to future criminal prosecution.
