Graphic video footage showing the brutal murder of a soldier who appears to be wearing a Ukrainian uniform has appeared on social media.
The first video that was published shows a man in military uniform wearing a Z patch (the symbol of the Russian invasion) cut off the soldier’s genitalia with a box-cutting knife. One of the men (who appears to be shooting the video on camera) calls the tied-up man lying on the ground a “faggot”. When the soldier tries to resist, they kick him in the head.
For ethical reasons, we publish an edited version of the video.
ASTRA news outlet reports that the attacker shown in the video was identified because of his hat: a man wearing the same hat appeared in a video published by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, where soldiers of the Chechen “Akhmat” battalion and the Luhansk “people’s republic” (“LPR”) militia talk about the “clearing operation” at the Sievierodonetsk Azot plant.
Later, another video that seems to be a continuation of the first one was published on Ukrainian Telegram channels. The video shows two men pinning the man with torn pants face down on the ground. They are likely taping his mouth shut. A man with the Z patch seen with a knife in the first video is standing over them.
Then the prisoner is shot in the head and dragged towards a pit. “Help me, bro, grab him by the arms,” someone is heard saying off-screen, addressing the Z-patch man.
It is unclear where the video was shot. It shows two white civilian vehicles: one of them is marked with a large black letter Z. There is also a section of a building seen in the video, likely a non-residential one.
A screenshot from the video
It is impossible to promptly verify the footage during an ongoing conflict.
The news article was updated at 15:48 (GMT+3) with new information (additional footage).
