The chief of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his men fighting in the flashpoint eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut would kill rival soldiers and take no more prisoners.
He was reacting to a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel posting of an alleged recording of what it said were two Ukrainians deciding to shoot a Russian prisoner of war.
The channel did not say where the recording came from and there is no way of verifying its authenticity.
"We will kill everyone on the battlefield. Take no more prisoners of war," Mr Prigozhin said in an audio recording yesterday.
"We don't know the name of our guy shot by Ukrainians," Mr Prigozhin said, adding that under international law his group was obliged to "take care, treat, not hurt" any prisoners of war.
He said his group did not want to breach international law and would kill all soldiers on the battlefield.
Wagner's presence has been reported in conflict zones including Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic, where it has been accused of abuses.
Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of killing prisoners of war since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to invade Ukraine more than a year ago.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in April denounced Russian "beasts" after a video appeared to show the beheading of a Ukrainian prisoner.
Mr Prigozhin denied accusations from a Russian NGO and a Wagner deserter that members of his fighting force were responsible.
Son of Putin spokesman 'joined Wagner in Ukraine'
The son of Mr Putin's spokesman said that he has been fighting in Ukraine under an assumed name as an artilleryman in the Wagner mercenary force, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported.
Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the deadliest European conflicts since World War II and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
As many as 354,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or injured in the invasion of Ukraine , which is grinding towards a protracted conflict that may last well beyond 2023, according to a trove of U.S. intelligence documents posted online.
Nikolai Peskov, the 33-year-old son of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, told the privately-owned newspaper over the weekend that he had fought in Ukraine, a rare, public example of the son of a senior Russian official fighting in the invasion.
"It was on my initiative," Mr Peskov, whose father has served as Mr Putin's spokesman since 2008, said in an interview.
He said that he had served out his contract for a little under half a year under an assumed name to hide his identity. He received a medal for bravery, the newspaper said.
Mr Prigozhin said that Dmitry Peskov had approached him and asked him to take his son on as an artilleryman.
Nikolai Peskov was born in 1990 and lived in Britain in the decade following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, according to the Kommersant newspaper. He then returned to Russia and served in the strategic rocket forces from 2010 to 2012.
Dmitry Peskov, who served in the foreign ministry in Moscow and abroad before rising through the Kremlin, was sanctioned by the United States shortly after the invasion broke out, along with his wife and two adult children, Nikolai and Elizaveta, according to the U=S Treasury.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin's chief foreign envoy has arrived in New York to chair the UN's most senior decision-making body, as Russian forces continue their military assault on Ukraine.
Russia has also said its forces had advanced in Bakhmut, while a top Ukrainian commander said his troops were holding the frontline through the city, all but destroyed in some of the bloodiest combat of the 14-month war.
The Russian defence ministry said its forces had secured two blocks in western districts and airborne units were providing reinforcements to the north and south. Russia sees Bakhmut as a stepping stone to more advances in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi shared images on the Telegram messaging app of him poring over a map with three other uniformed men, with the caption "Bakhmut frontline. Our defence continues".
"We hit the enemy, often unexpectedly for him, and continue to hold strategic lines," he wrote.
The battlefield reports could not immediately be independently verified.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner military force which is leading the Bakhmut assault, has claimed 80% control of the city. Kyiv has repeatedly denied claims its troops are poised to withdraw.
Mr Zelensky vowed to keep defending the city.
"It is impossible for us to give up on Bakhmut because this will [help] expand the battle front and will give the Russian forces and Wagner chances to seize more of our lands," Mr Zelensky said in an interview with Al Arabiya news channel published yesterday.
'No more prisoners'
Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has said his men fighting in the city of Bakhmut would kill rival soldiers and take no more prisoners.
He was reacting to a Wagner-affiliated Telegram channel posting of an alleged recording of what it said were two Ukrainians deciding to shoot a Russian prisoner of war.
The channel did not say where the recording came from and there is no way of verifying its authenticity.
"We will kill everyone on the battlefield. Take no more prisoners of war!" Prigozhin said in an audio recording on Sunday.
"We don't know the name of our guy shot by Ukrainians," Prigozhin said, adding that under international law his group was obliged to "take care, treat, not hurt" any prisoners of war.
He said his group did not want to breach international law and, would kill all soldiers on the battlefield.
Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of killing prisoners of war.
