Ukraine will investigate video with killed occupiers

Sunday, 20 November 2022, 15:27

Ukrainian authorities will investigate the video which likely shows killed Russian soldiers who were trying to surrender into captivity until one of them opened fire.

Source: Olha Stefanishyna, vice Prime Minister for European and Euro Atlantic integration of Ukraine, in a commentary for The Associated Press on Saturday, 19 November in the evening in the couloir of a Halifax Security Forum

Quote: "Of course, the Ukrainian authorities will investigate this video."

Details: Stefanishyna states that it is "very unlikely" that short edited fragments really show what Moscow claims they show.

She also made it clear that the Ukrainian troops "are by no means interested in executing somebody" and were given a direct order to "capture as many Russians as possible" to then swap them for the Ukrainian prisoners of war.

"Every potentially executed Russian soldier is a Ukrainian who will not be swapped, so there is no spirit and logic behind such accusations", – she added.

To the question whether Ukraine will allow an international investigation, Stefanishyna responded: "We’ll see. There are no problems with that."

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine called for further investigations.

 "The monitoring mission knows about this video and is studying it…We are reiterating our request for a proper, prompt investigation of all such accusations by corresponding authorities", – is stated in the statement sent to The Associated Press.

Background:

  • Russia made a statement about the "cruelty of Zelenskyy’s regime" and turned to the international organisations in connection with a video being published on Telegram-channels. Russia claims that in the video, Ukrainian soldiers are killing Russian prisoners of war.
  • Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament O mbudsman for Human Rights, commented on these videos and stated that Russians took advantage of the surrender into captivity and committed a war crime by opening fire on the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. 

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