The Ukrainian army said on Saturday it was verifying the authenticity of videos that Moscow says prove Kyiv executed several Russian soldiers who had surrendered.
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“Before an investigation is launched, there must be a basis for it. We are in the process of determining whether these videos are fake,” army spokesman Bogdan Senyk told AFP.
He added that these videos had been “shared with specialists,” noting that the release of fake videos had “intensified lately.”
Russia on Friday accused Ukraine of “brutally” executing more than 10 of its soldiers who had laid down their arms, denouncing a “war crime”.
“No one will be able to portray the deliberate and systematic killing of more than ten immobilized Russian soldiers (…) with direct headshots as + tragic exception +”, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
In the first video, recorded with a mobile phone, we see a group of men in military uniforms coming out one by one from a building in the courtyard of a house with their hands raised and lying face down on the ground, under the restraining Disposal of soldiers wearing a yellow armband and holding them at gunpoint.
The moment a last dark silhouette appears on the left, the video is abruptly interrupted and a burst is heard at the same time.
The second video, taken from a great height, possibly with a drone, shows a dozen bodies lying in pools of blood.
One of the bodies appears to have been hit in the head.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not specify when these images were taken.
When asked by AFP, a UN spokesman said: “We know about these videos and are checking them.” He emphasized that the perpetrators would have to answer for their actions if necessary.
The Russian Investigative Committee said it had launched an investigation into “the execution of captured Russian soldiers.”
Moscow’s claims come after the UN released a report this week showing prisoners of war were being tortured and ill-treated on both sides.