There are reports that Ukraine is saying it will investigate controversial video footage circulating on social media which Moscow claims shows Ukrainian forces killing Russian troops while they tried to surrender, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister in charge of the country’s push to join the European Union, told the AP, “Of course, Ukrainian authorities will investigate this video.” Speaking at a security forum in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she said “it is very unlikely” that the short clips show what Moscow claims.
Russia said on Friday it had opened a criminal investigation based on the clips circulating on Russian social media and its foreign ministry claims the footage shows an “execution.”
Russia wants an international investigation but Stefanishyna said Ukrainian forces are “absolutely not interested in the execution of anybody” and are under direct orders to take “as many prisoners of war as we can” so they can be swapped in prisoner exchanges with Russia.
The UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has called for further investigation, which Stefanishyna said Ukraine had “no problem” with, the Guardian report added.
KI/PR