Harrowing images from Ukraine: Lavrov's spokeswoman sees "merciless execution" - what's up?
Created: 11/20/2022, 8:20 p.m
By: Florian Naumann
The controversial recordings – presumably from the former frontline town of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine.
© Screenshot: Twitter.com
Zakharova, Medvedev and Kadyrov make accusations against Ukraine.
The occasion is pictures from the front.
Fact checkers react cautiously at first.
Moscow/Makiivka – The UN recently accused both Russia and Ukraine of war crimes in the Ukraine war, which has been going on for almost nine months.
At the weekend, however, it is primarily the Kremlin that is making massive accusations against Kyiv.
The occasion is a sometimes disturbing video – Russia sees it as evidence of a “merciless shooting of unarmed Russian prisoners of war”.
What is behind the recordings is still unclear.
Where they were taken, which actors can be seen on them and whether they are real is also still to be clarified.
But they throw the spotlight on a brutally waged war.
Ukraine initially did not comment on the allegations.
In the past, however, she had repeatedly accused Russia of torturing and killing civilians.
After the withdrawal of Russian troops, mass graves and, according to Kiev, “torture chambers” were found in several places in the country, most recently in Cherson.
Ukraine War: Drastic footage from Makiivka – fact checkers remain cautious
The Russian exile news portal meduza.io
reported on the new video recordings
.
They are said to have been circulating since the night of November 18, but originated earlier.
Both
Meduza
and the British BBC pointed out that there appear to be two different sources of footage: a shot from the ground and a bird's-eye view drone video that is believed to have been made later.
According to the BBC's fact checkers, the local conditions of both sources match - for example building components such as a canopy that can be seen both times.
In fact, these similarities are striking.
But many other questions remain unanswered.
The first video ends abruptly in a shaky sequence with gunshot-like noises.
A man dressed in black appears to be firing shots.
Before that, soldiers can be seen approaching the building wearing yellow armbands, commonly worn by Ukrainian forces, and finally men in camouflage clothing emerge from the house and lie on the ground with their hands raised.
According to the BBC, the armed arrivals spoke Ukrainian.
The drone images appear to show dead soldiers lying on the ground in front of a farmhouse.
According to the BBC, they also appeared in a video released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense - citing fighting in the Makiyevka area near the front in the embattled Luhansk Oblast.
According to other reports, Russian troops had suffered greater losses there.
At the same time, Ukraine complained that not a single house in the village remained undamaged after the Russian occupation.
Russia raises allegations against Ukraine - Kadyrov, Medvedev and Lavrov's spokeswoman speak out
According to a report by the state agency TASS, the spokeswoman for Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Maria Zakharova, evaluated the pictures as evidence of war crimes.
At the same time, she repeated well-known allegations: "These shocking videos are further evidence of the crimes committed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis," she said on Friday (November 18) - this is probably aimed at the Ukrainian government, which has labeled Russia as Nazi since the beginning of the war wants to defame.
Russia wanted to report the recordings to the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and other official bodies.
Maria Zakharova at one of her weekly briefings in Moscow © SNA/Imago
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also called for "the death penalty" for the alleged perpetrators on Friday.
"Putin's bloodhound" Ramzan Kadyrov also spoke out - he accused the West of ignoring atrocities in Ukraine.
According to
Meduza
, pro-Russian Telegram bloggers excessively shared the video.
Which ultimately speaks neither for nor against the truthfulness of the allegations.
However, there are also doubts about the version put forward by Russia.
Slowed down recordings circulated on Twitter, which are said to indicate shots by the – according to this thesis only supposed – surrendering.
As of November 20, none of the variants had been verified or assessed as final.
The Reuters news agency was also unable to prove or refute the images.
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Ukraine-News: Again and again reports about war crimes
In the course of the war, brutal but unverified photos and videos as well as testimonies came to light again and again.
For example, there have been reports of shots in the limbs of captured Russian soldiers and repeated reports of atrocious practices in Russian “filtration camps”.
The round recently also made a cynical-looking recording of the alleged execution of a deserter from the Russian mercenary group "Wagner" - Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozchin had personally commented on it.
Photos of civilians allegedly killed by Russian soldiers on the streets of the Kiev suburb of Bucha have also entered the collective memory.
Despite Russian denials, these are now considered authentic.
(
fn
)