Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for Integration with the EU Olga Stefanishyna said that the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies will check the video of the execution of captured Russian servicemen for the presence of a war crime.
“Of course, the Ukrainian authorities will investigate this video,” she promised on CNBC. At the same time, it is “very unlikely” that short video clips can become evidence of the accusations made by the Russian side. captured “as many” soldiers as possible in order to be able to exchange them for Ukrainians in the future.
When asked if Kyiv would allow an international investigation, Stefanyshina replied: “Let’s see. There are no problems with this.”
What’s in the video
On November 18, videos began to circulate on the Internet, in which the bodies of Russian soldiers shot by the Armed Forces of Ukraine are captured. It was alleged that the video was allegedly made in the Makeevka area near Svatovo. As noted by the Telegram channel “Military Correspondents of the Russian Spring”, one of the videos in which the corpses are visible was filmed from a drone. Ukrainian servicemen also appear in the video: one of them is lying with a machine gun aimed at the surrendered soldiers, the second calls to leave the house and asks which of the prisoners is an officer. Then shots are heard, the video ends.
The time when the video was filmed is not specified. The leaves on the trees in the frame are no longer there, from which we can conclude that the recording is quite recent.
Reaction to the videos
On the same day, the head of the Human Rights Council under the President of Russia, Valery Fadeev , stated that he would demand a thorough investigation, and would also send information about “executions” in Makiivka at 2,000 addresses, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, Amnesty International, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations, as well as directly to politicians, ambassadors, journalists and human rights defenders.
The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the footage of the massacre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine over unarmed prisoners of war confirms the “knackering nature of the Kyiv regime” headed by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and “those who protect him and supports.”
DPR Ombudsman Daria Morozova applied to the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross requiring an objective hearing. She noted that “it is difficult to comment on the video of the execution of surrendered soldiers in the settlement of Makiivka in the Luhansk direction without going beyond the normative vocabulary.”
Owner of the company “ Concord” and the founder of the private military company (PMC) “Wagner” Yevgeny Prigozhin, in turn, said that, despite the possible executions of Russian prisoners of war, Russian forces “will not succumb to provocations.” The businessman promised that the Ukrainian prisoners would return home alive. At the same time, Prigozhin doubted that the Ukrainian military “would start killing Slavs in this way,” including taking into account the fact that each prisoner is needed for exchange.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that are studying the videos. “I contacted colleagues who say they know about these videos and are studying them,” Elizabeth Trossell, an employee of the press service of the organization, told RIA Novosti.