The video purports to show a man who is apparently a Ukrainian prisoner of war being castrated at knifepoint by what appear to be Russian soldiers.
Ukrainian member of parliament, Mich Ryan, rages over a video:
– It makes me sick to see that one person can do this to another, he writes on Twitter.
Ivar Dale, senior specialist adviser at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, describes the video as heartbreaking and grotesque.
– If one assumes that it is real. It’s just unimaginable and horrible. It is possibly a reminder of the brutalization in the Russian army, he says to Dagbladet.
The harrowing video is now spreading online, sparking outrage in Kyiv.
– Russia must pay for this, writes the Ukrainian member of parliament Inna Sovsun on Twitter.
The video is said to show a group of men wearing Russian uniforms, using a wallpaper knife to remove the genitalia of a man who appears to be Ukrainian, then holding it up in front of the camera.
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Former Australian general Mich Ryan also shared his thoughts regarding the video in a series Twitter posts.
– It makes me sick to see that one person can do this to another. It is an inhuman act – there is nothing to justify it, writes Ryan.
– Probably real
Aric Toler from the journalist collective Bellingcat, who has previously identified, among other things, the Salisbury poisonings, has told The Times that the video is probably real.
sea view
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According to Toler, there is no evidence that the video has been manipulated, and he points to Russian state media showing images of some of the same Russian soldiers in the city of Sievjerodonetsk back in June, shortly after it was taken from Ukraine.
Christo Grozev in Bellingcat tells Dagbladet that the video “unfortunately” seems real.
– We are working on verifying and geolocating the video. But especially the last part, which shows the castration, is difficult to fabricate – as it is a close-up. Our preliminary assumption is therefore that the video is unfortunately authentic, he says.
– The Russians are tired
– Reminder of the brutalization
Ivar Dale of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee believes that the intention behind the video is to shock and frighten Ukrainians living in the occupied areas from opposing the Russian occupation.
– At the same time, I think that it is something people in Russia will also get to see. Then many Russians will probably be deeply ashamed of representatives of the Russian authorities, he says and adds:
– Even if mercenaries are possibly behind the incident, it is Russia that is responsible. In the long run, this will lead to even more Russians distancing themselves from their own regime.
Killed on the run: – War crimes
He describes what he saw in the video as one of the worst things he has seen in modern times.
– When Putin says that he wants to spread traditional values in Ukraine, one has to wonder if there are torture traditions from the Middle Ages. This can only be found in books from the 14th century.
– It is also only the tip of the iceberg, for sure. In this area there is complete lawlessness. Donetsk and Luhansk have been outside international law, he adds.
– Painful execution
Cecilie Hellestveit, a lawyer and social scientist with a doctorate in the international law of war at the University of Oslo, has also seen images from the video.
She immediately asks herself two questions: Who posted it, and is it real.
– But having said that, the video shows several war crimes. This is torture of a prisoner of war, and probably a particularly painful extrajudicial execution of a person in a prisoner of war. It is also forbidden to share such images, if it is done to deter the enemy.
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But there could also be other motives behind it, according to Hellestveit.
– The Ukrainians can leak this to deter their own soldiers from surrendering to Russian captivity, because then a fate worse than death awaits, she says and adds:
– In the wake of this type of leaks, the Russian military authorities higher up in the command line must take action, in order to avoid being held responsible for this war crime. War crimes are committed on both sides, but overwhelmingly more so on the Russian side.
The video is one of many suspected war crimes allegedly committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities are investigating more than 21,000 suspected Russian war crimes in the country.
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