Russia accused Ukraine of war crimes after a video surfaced on social media that Moscow said showed Russian soldiers killed after surrendering to Ukrainian forces.
The video, which has been located by CNN, was shot on the outskirts of the village of Makiivka, in the eastern Luhansk region, about 25 miles (about 40 kilometers) northeast of the city of Lyman.
It’s not clear when the video was shot, but it’s most likely on November 12th – the day the video first appeared online – or in the days immediately preceding it. The village was only declared liberated from Russian control in an announcement by the Luhansk regional military government on November 13.
The video has been edited to show captured Russian soldiers performing the act of surrender, with some men lying on the ground with their hands over their heads. Several soldiers were seen one by one coming out of a building and lying down next to them in the courtyard.
A voice that seemed to direct the surrender could be heard shouting: “Get out, one by one. Which of you is an officer? Is everyone out yet? Go out!”
After about 10 men fell to the ground, another soldier emerged from the same building and appeared to open fire at the Ukrainian soldiers who were proceeding to surrender.
A brief exchange of gunfire rang out before the video clip ended abruptly.
A second clip shot later from a drone above the same site shows the bodies of what appears to be Russian soldiers in the yard, most of them just a few feet from where they were in the first clip. first few meters. What appeared to be puddles of blood was clearly visible in several places.
CNN was unable to verify exactly what happened in the first video clip, and it’s unclear exactly what happened in the amount of time that passed between the first clip and the drone footage. .
Marta Hurtado, spokeswoman for the United Nations Office for Human Rights, said, according to Reuters: “We are aware of the videos and we are reviewing them. Allegations of mass executions of combatants should be investigated promptly, fully and effectively, and any Every offender must be held accountable.”
A statement from the Russian Defense Ministry denounced what it called “the deliberate and methodical killing of more than 10 motionless Russian servicemen… by direct bullets to the head”, accusing accused it of being the latest war crime committed by Ukraine during the war.
CNN has reached out to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for comment on the video clips twice in a 24-hour period, but has yet to receive a response.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s 80th airborne brigade told CNN that the drone footage was shot by the brigade’s aerial reconnaissance unit. When asked to verify if the Ukrainian soldiers in the clip were members of his brigade, the spokesman only said that he did not recognize any of the men in the clip.
Execution of prisoners of war is a war crime under the Geneva Convention, as is the act of pretending to surrender.
Earlier this week, during a press conference with journalists before Makiivka’s videos were widely released, the head of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said that the United Nations had received reliable reports of torture and ill-treatment of prisoners. war of both Russia and Ukraine, Reuters reported.
When asked to compare the extent of abuse that had occurred, Bogner said the abuse of Ukrainian prisoners by the Russians was “quite systematic”, while she said Ukraine’s abuse of Russian soldiers was “unsystematic”. system”, according to Reuters.
More context: A UN panel of experts said in September that their investigation had found evidence of war crimes committed during Russia’s war in Ukraine, including cases of rape and torture of children.
