Ukraine promises “immediate investigation” after video surfaces of soldiers shooting Russian prisoners

Video has surfaced exhibiting what seem like Ukrainian troopers taking pictures males who’re apparently Russian prisoners within the knees throughout an operation within the Kharkiv area.

On the virtually six-minute-long video, the Ukrainian troopers are heard saying they’ve captured a Russian reconnaissance group working from Olkhovka, a settlement in Kharkiv roughly 20 miles from the Russian border.

Requested in regards to the video, a senior presidential advisor, Oleksiy Arestovych, stated in an interview posted on YouTube Sunday: “The federal government is taking this very critically, and there will likely be a right away investigation. We’re a European military, and we don’t mock our prisoners. If this seems to be actual, that is completely unacceptable conduct.”

In a separate briefing, Arestovych stated, “We deal with prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Conference, no matter your private emotional motives.”

CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian Protection Ministry for remark. In response, the ministry despatched CNN an announcement from the Armed Forces chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The assertion didn’t refer on to the incident, however stated, “With the intention to discredit Ukraine’s protection forces, the enemy movies and distributes staged movies exhibiting inhuman remedy by alleged ‘Ukrainian troopers’ of ‘Russian prisoners.’ 

“I emphasize that servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and different respectable navy formations strictly adhere to the norms of worldwide humanitarian regulation,” Zaluzhnyi stated. “I urge you to bear in mind the realities of informational and psychological warfare and belief solely official sources.”

It is unclear which Ukrainian unit could have been concerned. The troopers communicate in a mix of Ukrainian and Russian with Ukrainian accents.

The video comes as Ukrainian forces make positive factors east and south of Kharkiv. CNN geolocated and verified a protracted video uploaded on a Telegram Saturday exhibiting a profitable assault by Ukrainian troops of the Azov Battalion, wherein they took quite a few Russian prisoners in a speedy assault on Olkhovka, also referred to as Vilkhivka.

Among the prisoners have been stripped and blindfolded.

That video was posted by Konstantin Nemichev, a Kharkiv regional official who took half within the assault on Olkhovka. He informed CNN he was not related to the footage that emerged exhibiting Ukrainian troops kneecapping Russian prisoners.

“This isn’t our location … I’ve not seen such a location,” he informed CNN on Sunday.

He recommended the video was shot “possibly someplace within the [Kharkiv] area.”

Within the first response from Russian authorities, the chairman of the investigative committee of the Russian Federation, A.I. Bastrykin, stated an investigation can be launched “to determine all of the circumstances of the ill-treatment of captured troopers by Ukrainian nationalists.”

In an announcement, Bastrykin stated: “Footage appeared on the Web wherein prisoners have been handled with excessive cruelty by Ukrainian nationalists. The video circulating on-line exhibits captured troopers, being shot in each legs and never given medical help. In keeping with some stories, unlawful actions befell at one of many bases of the Ukrainian nationalists in Kharkiv area.” 

CNN shouldn’t be exhibiting the video.