Graphic Video (NSFW)
Footage surfaced this past Monday which apparently shows Ukrainian forces killing Russian soldiers who had been taken prisoner on the outskirts of a village west of Kyiv. The footage was verified as legitimate yesterday by The New York Times. Here is all the footage I could find. As expected, the video is graphic. Watch with caution.
These executions were the result of an ambush on a Russian convoy that took place on March 30th. The ambush was praised by Ukraine’s Defense Ministry and called, “precise work” when they tweeted a video of a Ukrainian soldier walking around the destroyed convoy. However, this praise from the Ukrainian government came before the video of the executions surfaced.
The information we know about the Ukrainian soldiers in the video is conflicting. In the footage, one of the Ukrainian soldiers refers to some of his comrades as Belgravia lads. This is possibly a reference to a housing development located roughly 200 meters from where the ambush occurred. However, a Ukrainian news agency posted a video of the ambush’s aftermath and claimed that it was done by the Georgian Legion which is a paramilitary unit made up of Gregorian volunteers formed by Ukraine back in 2014.
This war — like almost all conflicts — is rife with misinformation and propaganda. For example, a couple of weeks back a video claiming to be of Ukrainian soldiers shooting Russian prisoners in their legs surfaced. An internet battle then commenced over the authenticity of the video with some claiming it was staged Russian propaganda work. This conflict has shown us something odd. Sometimes the more information we receive about the details, the harder it is to find the truth.
Regardless, this video has been confirmed by the New York Times which has extensive resources and a large budget. Also, they have no motivation that I am aware of to make Ukrainian soldiers look bad by verifying videos of them executing prisoners.