The authenticity of the videos and the nationality of those involved have not yet been confirmed – Photo: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
Videos allegedly showing Russian soldiers castrating and murdering a bound and gagged Ukrainian fighter have circulated on social media, generating an indictment of alleged war crimes by the United Nations and an investigation of possible torture.
These are three videos where an apparent soldier appears with yellow and blue patches, in the colors of the Ukrainian flag on the ground, with his hands tied behind his back, gagged, mutilated, and then shot.
The videos first appeared on a pro-Russian Telegram channel; however, the authenticity of the videos and the nationality of those involved have not been confirmed, CNN reported.
The first video shows the victim being gagged with at least four men around him, one of whom appears in a Russian uniform with the “Z” insignia, a symbol associated with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The second images show the victim writhing on the ground while a man wearing blue surgical gloves in an apparent Russian uniform cuts through the victim’s underwear with a box cutter, the same one you used to castrate him. In the video, the perpetrators are heard saying, “hug him, hug him,” in Russian.
In the third video, the victim appears bound and mutilated, receiving a shot in the head. He was then dragged away by his executioners of him.
condemn the atrocious images
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine was shocked by the videos. A statement issued Friday night indicated that “torture and summary executions of prisoners of war and persons hors de combat are war crimes.”
“Unfortunately, this is only the latest in a series of videos that have documented torture and extrajudicial executions of prisoners of war and hors de combat, committed by warring parties,” the Mission said in a lengthy statement.
For its part, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office announced the beginning of a criminal investigation, which will be based on the results of the video processing and will seek to take measures to establish the circumstances of the castration and murder of a suspected Ukrainian soldier by Russian forces.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, strongly condemned Friday that “Russia’s current illegitimate and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine and its people brings more horrible atrocities daily.“
“Evidence in the form of gruesome video footage has been widely shared today on pro-Kremlin social media, in which Russian soldiers commit a heinous atrocity against a Ukrainian prisoner of war,” Borrell added.
With information from CNN