The unverified film appears to show Ukrainian soldiers removing three masked Russians from a van before shooting them in the legs.
Others are already seriously injured on the ground. The United Nations mission in Ukraine to monitor compliance with human rights: the present video gives “cause for serious concern”.

What is the video about:

A disturbing video has been circulating on the Internet for a few days. Soldiers can be seen lying seriously injured on the ground. Some of them have white bags pulled over their bloody faces. You seem dazed. When and how they were injured is unclear. The prisoners are questioned about their units and activities. Three other handcuffed men are taken out of a vehicle. Shots are heard and two people fall to the ground. The third is already kneeling down, his hands tied behind his back, but he too is shot in the legs.  

The footage has not yet been independently verified. 

What previous analyzes revealed:

1.) The location can be verified: The video was filmed in a dairy in Malaya Rohan, southeast of Kharkiv. The area had recently been recaptured by Ukrainian troops from Russian forces. BBC also analyzed satellite images and images from the facility and found clues to the location of the video:  

Before the three soldiers are shot, we can recognize elements of a house behind one of them.
A tree (1), a chimney (2) and the top half of a window (3) are very similar to those in a previous image (from 2017) of the dairy surroundings which we found on the farm's Google web page. In the video, the house is partially obscured by a white structure in the yard.

Translation: 

Before the three soldiers are shot, we can see elements of a house behind one of them. A tree (1), a chimney (2) and the top half of a window (3) are very similar to those in an earlier image (from 2017) of the area surrounding the dairy that we found on the facility's Google website. In the video, the house is partially obscured by a white structure in the yard.

Source: BBC
Screenshot BBC / Analysis video recording location
Screenshot BBC / Analysis video recording location

2.) No concrete statements about the time:
There is no time or date stamp on the video material and there is no metadata available that would enable a more precise determination. Based on the weather conditions, the BBC concluded that the video could have been filmed on March 26th.

3.) Who is it?
The kidnappers' accents indicate that they are Ukrainians from the East.
However, BBC points out that this does not confirm that these are Ukrainian soldiers. It remains possible that these are pro-Russian separatists from this region. The blue armbands are used by Ukrainian armed forces. However, no regimental badges are visible. Identification is therefore difficult. ( Source )

The analysis at n-tv also leads to similar, but also not concrete, results: the suspected Ukrainian soldiers speak Russian with a Ukrainian accent. According to a Ukrainian interpreter, this is normal for the specified region. The accent would probably be typical for both the Ukrainian and Russian sides. ( Source )

4.) What can be confirmed, however, is that
on the weekend of March 26-27, Ukrainian forces were near Malaya Rohan, in the village of Vilkhivka, which is 5.6 kilometers away.
There is a video about this that was posted online. This is a group of the National Corps. BBC contacted Konstantin Nemichev, head of the National Corps in the Kharkiv region. He said his troops treated prisoners "humanely" and denied any connection to the video of the alleged dairy shooting. ( Source )

n-tv also confirms that there are reports of fighting near Kharkiv around the release date of the video and that one location has been retaken by the Ukrainian armed forces. According to n-tv, the Russian prisoners of war could be the prisoners from the video. However, this cannot be determined with certainty. ( Source )

Many questions remain unanswered. Ultimately, it is difficult to determine whether the video is real or fake. In any case, the acts seen there - assuming they took place that way - are war crimes. It cannot be determined with certainty from which side these originate.

What's happening now?

The Ukrainian government has been asked to comment on the gruesome scenes.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in an interview on YouTube on Sunday : “The government takes this very seriously and there will be an immediate investigation. We are a European army. If this turns out to be true, this is absolutely unacceptable behavior.” He did not comment on whether the video is real or not. In the text accompanying the video he writes: “This video is being checked: is it fake or not? If it is not a fake, the perpetrators will be punished. If it is fake, we will be even more vigilant. Counterfeits of this kind and others have already occurred.”

The commander of the Ukrainian armed forces, Vitaly Zalushnyj, spoke on Facebook about a Russian fake. CNN has also reached out to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry for comment. In response, the ministry sent CNN a statement from the head of the armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. The statement does not directly refer to the incident, but generally states: "In order to discredit the Ukrainian Defense Forces, the enemy is filming and distributing staged videos showing the inhumane treatment of 'Russian prisoners' by alleged 'Ukrainian soldiers'." ( Source )

The head of the U.N. human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said she was “very concerned” and confirmed the video was being investigated. In such cases, the authorities on both sides would have to “carry out a full investigation into the allegations”. ( Source )

You might also be interested in: Rocket lands in the kitchen sink – not a fake

Sources: BBC , n-tv , CNN , FAZ.net


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )