Ukraine promises “immediate investigation” into a video allegedly showing Russian prisoners of war being shot in the legs.
CTV News has not verified the video, which allegedly shows Ukrainian forces standing over a group of heavily bound, bloodied and hooded Russian soldiers. When three other men appear to be taken prisoner, apparently each one is shot in the leg.
“The government is taking this very seriously and there will be an immediate investigation,” Oleksiy Arestovych, Ukraine’s top presidential adviser, said in an interview published Sunday, according to CNN. “If this proves to be true, this is completely unacceptable behavior.”
If authentic, the video would depict a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, which protects prisoners of war “from acts of violence or intimidation and from insults and public curiosity”.
In a statement to CNN, the head of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said that his soldiers “strictly adhere to the rules of international humanitarian law” and suggested that the video could be Russian propaganda.
“In order to discredit the Ukrainian defense forces, the enemy is filming and distributing rigged videos showing the inhuman treatment of alleged ‘Ukrainian soldiers’ to ‘Russian prisoners,'” said General Zaluzhnyi. “I urge you to take into account the reality of the information and psychological warfare and to trust only official sources.”
Russia has repeatedly been accused of spreading misinformation and committing war crimes in Ukraine, including targeting hospitals and urban neighborhoods. Despite the abundant evidence, Russia has denied such allegations.
Russian authorities say they plan to investigate the “ill-treatment of prisoners of conscience”.
“There were snapshots on the Internet in which Ukrainian nationalists treated detainees with extreme cruelty,” AI Bastrykin, head of the Russian Federation’s Investigative Committee, told CNN. “The video circulating on the internet shows captured soldiers being shot in both legs and not receiving medical treatment.”
CNN reports that the video was most likely taken in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine, where heavy Russian bombing took place.
In an interview with Britain’s Sky News, Ukraine’s attorney general Iryna Venediktova confirmed that the country would investigate, but said the video could not be taken at face value.
“We need proof,” Venediktova was quoted as saying by Reuters. “If they are guilty soldiers from the (Ukrainian) side, we will investigate them and take them to court.”
With files from CNN and Reuters
