The video appears to show a group of Russian soldiers emerging from an outbuilding in the grounds of a house with their hands above their heads before being told to lie face down. One of the men dressed in all black, however, is seen pointing his gun at a unit of Ukrainian soldiers wearing yellow armbands as he emerges from the half-demolished house. The video, which appears to have been taken by a Ukrainian soldier, suggests that all Russians, including those prone, were killed in the ensuing violence. There are at least 12 bodies. The incident is said to have happened at a house near the village of Makiivka in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, which is part of a wider region known as Donbas. Neither the location nor the identity of those in the video could be immediately independently verified. Ukraine’s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said: “This brutal killing of Russian servicemen is neither the first nor the only war crime. “This is common practice in the Armed Forces of Ukraine that is actively supported by the Kiev regime and is blatantly ignored by its Western patrons.” The Russian Defense Ministry went on to claim that the video shows “the deliberate and methodical killing of more than 10 stationary Russian servicemen by degenerate Ukrainian soldiers.” The spokesman said the Ukrainian government would be held responsible for “every prisoner tortured and killed.” The conflict in Ukraine that followed Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade the country on February 24 has seen both sides trading accusations of war crimes. In response to previous allegations, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it would investigate any incidents, although none of the investigations appear to have reached a conclusion. The Kremlin has made no such promise in the face of the spate of allegations of torture of militants and civilians in Ukraine by its forces and mercenaries fighting on behalf of Russia. A war crime is defined by the United Nations as a serious violation of international law committed against civilians or enemy forces during an armed conflict.
