KYIV - Russian forces executed five Ukrainian prisoners of war during a single incident in eastern Ukraine last month, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said on Friday.

The authorities said in a statement that Russian troops shot the five unarmed soldiers after capturing them during an assault on their position on Oct. 2 near the eastern town of Vuhledar.

The statement was accompanied by two grainy aerial photographs of the incident, which Reuters was unable to independently confirm.

Prosecutors have opened a war-crimes investigation, one of 13 such probes opened in the past two months into the alleged killing of 54 Ukrainian POWs, senior prosecutor Taras Semkiv told Ukrainian television on Friday.

Russia did not immediately comment on the incident, but has previous denied committing war crimes.

  - Reuters