Video appears to show Ukrainian soldier killing Russian prisoner

Footage appears to show an execution performed by a Ukrainian soldier – an action that would amount to a war crime – taking place just over five miles from Bucha, where Russian forces are suspected of committing atrocities against civilians.

Four bodies can be seen in the footage, all of which are dressed in clothes matching Russian military uniform.

The hands of at least one of the bodies are tied behind its back, suggesting the soldier was captured before being killed.

What else does the footage show?

Of the four soldiers pictured on the ground, one is still moving in the video and wheezing sounds can be heard.

A soldier surrounding the bodies says: “Look, he is still alive”.

A gun then fires three shots in the direction of the wounded soldier, who then stops moving.

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Soldiers surrounding the bodies can also be heard saying “glory to Ukraine” and one says: “Don’t come to our country”.

Some of these troops are wearing blue armbands, an identifier previously seen on Ukrainian troops, while one of the soldiers is wearing a patch of the Ukrainian flag, albeit placed upside down.

Do we know the footage is real?

The location of the footage has been matched to a road a little over five miles from Bucha, where Russia has been accused of committing war crimes against civilians.

The location was verified by matching a distinctive tree seen in the video and other visual markings. Google Street View shows the same tree on a road outside the town of Dmytrivka to the west of Kyiv.

The first known record of the video appeared online on 30 March. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence reported their forces had ambushed Russian troops in the area around this time.

A Ukrainian news agency posted an additional video relating to this ambush on the same date which featured some of the same troops seen in the video with the dead soldiers.

The same vehicle, pictured below, can also be seen in both videos.

An analyst from defence intelligence company Janes told Sky News: “This vehicle is a BMD-2 airdroppable infantry fighting vehicle. It is used exclusively by Russia’s airborne forces and the ‘V’ on the side of it indicates it was at some point deployed north-west of Kyiv.”

One of the dead bodies seen in the potentially incriminating video can also be seen wearing the uniform of Russia’s airborne forces.

This would suggest the incident shows the aftermath of an ambush on Russian airborne forces.

Identifying individuals

A Russian group that purports to investigate war crimes in Ukraine has released the personal details of three individuals it claims are in the video. It said one of the soldiers belongs to a Georgian legion fighting alongside the Ukrainian army.

Mamuka Mamuashwili, Commander of the Georgian Battalion in Ukraine, told Sky News the video does not feature members of the Georgian Legion.

The quality of the footage means individuals’ identities cannot be confirmed but the social media accounts and other reporting relating to these people show pictures that look very similar to those seen in the video.

At least one of these people has a social media account listed as based in Kyiv and which has been active for several years.

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Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba was asked about the incident at a NATO press conference on Thursday.

He said he had not seen the video but was aware of it. He added: “The Ukrainian army observes the rules of warfare. There might be isolated incidents of violations of these rules and they will definitely be investigated.”

Before Sky News republishes a social media video or image from the war in Ukraine our forensic journalists analyse the material. They deploy a variety of open source investigative tools to determine the veracity of the images, including matching the locations shown with open source satellite images and maps, and conducting reverse image searches to determine whether the footage or images do indeed show the events they purport to show. Sky News works with the wider OSINT community and other experts to further check the origin of the material we publish.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

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