While Yahoo News cannot independently verify the video’s authenticity, the video, which was originally posted on a pro-Russian Telegram page before quickly spreading across social media, shows a Russian soldier or mercenary wearing a distinctive black fringed hat. mutilating a man who appears to be a captured Ukrainian soldier. (via Telegram) The victim in the video wears Ukrainian-style camouflage curtains and appears gagged, with his hands tied behind his back. He lies helpless on the floor as the man in a Russian uniform, which has a “Z” patch on it, uses a box cutter to cut off his clothes and then appears to castrate him while shouting derogatory insults in Russian. At least two other men who appear to be Russian soldiers are seen in the video. While it is unclear when the video was shot, what appears to be the same man wearing the black fringed hat also appeared in a June broadcast by Russian state media RT. In this video, the apparent soldier is seen holding a Dragunov sniper rifle as he walks around the Azot chemical plant in the city of Severodonetsk after the Ukrainian withdrawal from the city. In a post published on the RIA Novosti Telegram channel, the Russian news agency identified the man as part of the Chechen “Akhmat” battalion of the Russian army. Russia has captured thousands of soldiers and volunteers in the five months since it launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. In mid-May, some 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered in what was the last stronghold of Mariupol. Many of the militants holed up at the Azovstal steel plant were sent to a former prison colony located 55 miles north of the city. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it collected personal information from the soldiers and registered them as prisoners of war as they left the steelworks to ensure they were given humane treatment under the Geneva Conventions. The ICRC also told Russia it must have “immediate access to all prisoners in all places where they are held.” Since the Kremlin launched its invasion of Ukraine, there have been several accusations of war crimes against Russian soldiers. The government of Vladimir Putin categorically denied all this.
