Salo with horrific images of torture and murder of alleged Russian prisoners by Ukrainians – “We are conducting an investigation”

In the last few hours, the internet has been making a video that shows horrible images with alleged people Ukrainians soldiers to have capture some men in military uniforms and who are said to be Russians and who are then tortured, shot and killed.

You can watch the video here – Beware of very harsh images.

Ukrainian authorities are investigating a video that allegedly shows Ukrainian soldiers shooting Russian prisoners of war in the legs before killing them.

The video, which has been circulating on social media since it first appeared in the early hours of Sunday (March 27th) since then, has been widely reposted by pro-Russian accounts on various platforms. Major overseas networks such as the BBC, Euronews and the Guardian since its inception war in Ukraine try to confirm the validity of the images published by both the Russian and Ukrainian sides.

The head of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said that Russia was “directing and distributing rigged videos” in order to discredit the treatment of Russian detainees by Ukraine. However, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said there would be an immediate investigation, adding: “I would like to remind all our military, our citizens and our defense forces that the abuse of prisoners of war is a crime.” .

The BBC is analyzing the video, but has not yet been able to verify it independently. As they continue to examine the material, let’s see what we have learned so far.

What does the material show?

War in Ukraine

The material, which contains very harsh images, is supposed to show a number of captured soldiers on the ground. Some have bags over their heads and many appear to be bleeding from sores on their feet. It is not clear how or when they were injured.

The captives are questioned by their captors, asking them about their units and their activities in the area. At one point, three men get out of a vehicle and are shot in the leg by a soldier.

Where was it filmed?

Greetings to the point of alleged war crimes

As of Sunday night, a Twitter user had suggested that the video was shot at a dairy factory in Malaya Rohan, southeast of Kharkov. The BBC used geolocation tools to confirm the location. The area had recently been recaptured by Ukrainian troops from Russian forces.

When was it filmed?

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The video does not have a time or date stamp and there is no metadata available that would allow us to determine exactly when it was shot. But the glances in the sky show clear conditions and the ground is dry.

Meteorological reports from the Kharkiv region suggest that the video could have been shot on Saturday, March 26. The weather on Friday and Saturday was dry, sunny but cold, while during the night between Saturday and Sunday a light rain was recorded in the area.

Looking at the position of the sun in some of the video frames, it indicates that the material could have been shot in the early morning hours of the day.

What does it sound like?

War in Ukraine

The prisoners are being interrogated in Russian. A BBC Monitoring language expert says the soldiers’ accent is “in line with what one would expect from Russian-speaking Ukrainians”.

Another expert confirmed that they seem to have an Eastern Ukrainian accent, noting the use of the word “hovorit” (“speak”) instead of the Russian “govorit”. At one point, one of the prisoners is accused of bombing Kharkiv, another is asked about his nationality and answers that he is Azerbaijani (not Russian).

One of the prisoners says he serves in Biskvitne, which is near the village of Malaya Rohan and the dairy we have located.

Who are the soldiers?

War in Ukraine

The accent of the prisoners is consistent with the fact that they are Ukrainians from the east of the country. This, however, does not confirm that they are Ukrainian soldiers – they are likely to be pro-Russian separatists from the region.

They also wear uniforms with blue armbands, as used by the Ukrainian forces, although again this is by no means convincing. Constitution marks or other forms of identity are not visible, which makes them very difficult to identify.

Over the weekend of March 26-27, a video was posted on the Internet showing the activities of the Kraken unit, which is affiliated with the far-right National Corps political group. The BBC geographically located the footage from this video in the village of Vilkhivka, 5.6 km from Malaya Rohan. The weather is equally sunny and dry.

The group said 30 Russians were taken prisoner in the village on March 25, and Kraken’s video shows prisoners blindfolded, blindfolded and forced into a truck at one point and forced to sing the Ukrainian national anthem at another. point. But there are no shootings or serious violence against them.

In the video of the alleged shots at the dairy, one of the soldiers passes by holding a discreet, camouflaged assault rifle.

Nick Reynolds, military expert at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), says: “It looks like the Ukrainian SOF [ειδικές δυνάμεις] “They camouflage their assault rifles,” he told us, “but the weapon looks discreetly different from any I have ever seen.”

Ukrainian soldier with a gun

He also pointed out that both sides have captured weapons from each other, so it is difficult to be definitive about the weapon.
Questions about the shootings

In the most disturbing part of the video, three men appear to have been shot in the leg at close range with an assault rifle.

There has been a debate on social media about whether the video is genuine or staged, with some arguing that there is not enough blood, signs of exit wounds or voices and screams from the victims to make it real.

The BBC showed the video to several trauma surgeons and former military doctors, who gave their expert opinion but wished to remain anonymous. One said he had treated soldiers who had been shot by people who did not shout or scream, and said the lack of bleeding in some of the wounded soldiers could be explained by the fact that they had been given a hemostatic bandage (seen in the video).

He said: “My opinion is that the video can not be categorized as ‘fake’ based only on the images we saw. That fact must be taken into account. “

Another doctor said: “It looks real; they fit the description of punitive shots in the extremities.”

Source: News Beast

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