According to multiple reports, the Ukrainian government is investigating a video that appears to show Ukrainians shooting Russian prisoners of war in the legs and beating them.
Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told The Times that there would be an immediate investigation.
Arestovych said that they are a European army and do not abuse their prisoners. According to The Times, if this is real, this behavior is absolutely unacceptable.
The abuse of prisoners is a war crime and has no statute of limitations, according to a Telegram post by Arestovych.
He reminded everyone that we are the European army of a European country.
The Washington Post reported that the video was filmed in the village of Malaya Rohanin in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine, and that it was making its rounds on pro-Russian media channels and on social media.
Two days after Ukrainian forces said on Telegram that they had taken back the village from Russian troops, it emerged online.
The five-minute video purportedly shows Ukrainian forces mistreating captive and bound Russian troops who were then shot in the kneecaps.
At one point in the video, the prisoners can be seen lying on the ground with bloodied hands.
Everyone in the clip speaks Russian and a voice can be heard accusing the Russian soldiers of "slamming" the second-largest city in Ukraine. The Post said that the apparent Ukrainian troops were speaking with a Ukrainian accent.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, claimed in a statement posted to Facebook on Sunday that the video was staged by the Russians in order to discredit the Ukrainian forces.
The enemy makes and shares videos with the inhuman treatment of Russian prisoners by Ukrainian soldiers in order to tarnish the reputation of the Ukrainian Defence Force.
During an interview with Sky News, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine said that they need proof.
If the Ukrainian military are found guilty, we will investigate them and take them to court.
The video was full of "monstrous images" and needed to be legally examined, according to the Kremlin.
Peskov said anyone who took part in the torture must be held responsible, according to the news outlet.
The UN called on the Russian and Ukrainian governments to investigate after videos showing the treatment of captive soldiers emerged.
We have seen videos from both sides of Ukrainian prisoners of war that have been taken by the Russian side and the Ukrainian side, according to the head of the UN's human rights office in Ukraine.
The UN is in the process of checking all of the material that has been issued, and it raises serious concerns, according to CNN.
The translations are by Oleksandr Vynogradov.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
