Graphic footage of a bound Ukrainian prisoner being mutilated by a group of Russian soldiers has sparked outrage after a video circulated on social media late Thursday night.
The authenticity of the video has not been independently verified.
According to Ukrainian member of Parliament Inna Sovsun, who posted the footage before her account was suspended, said the video depicted a “Russian soldier from Chechen battalion Ahmat cut[ting] off the genitals of Ukrainian POW.”
Several outlets reported that a group of Russian soldiers held down a man wearing Ukrainian fatigues while shouting derogatory language at him.
A boxcutter-like knife was then allegedly used to mutilate the individual.
It is unclear what happened to the apparent Ukrainian soldier after the video ended, but some reports have claimed the man was then killed.
“People should know what Russia is doing,” Sovsun said in a Twitter post once her account was back up.
It is unclear when or where the footage was taken.
Assistant foreign editor to “The Times,” Maxim Tucker, tweeted Thursday that the video is “genuine” according to the Netherlands-based investigative website Bellingcat.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak took to Twitter to voice his outrage and said, “Russian propagandists were delighted to show how a group of [Russian] inhumans destroyed a captive.”
“All the world needs to understand: Russia is a country of cannibals who enjoy torture and murder,” he wrote. “But the fog of war will not help to avoid the punishment of the executioners.”
Russia has been accused of committing thousands of war crimes and is currently being investigated by several international groups, including the International Criminal Court.
Fox News report
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