22 Ukrainian military officials charged with genocide by Russian probe
2 Min Read
The Investigative Committee of Russia charges 22 Ukrainian officials with genocide in absentia.
-
New volunteers of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion take an oath of allegiance, in 2014. (Reuters)
The Russian Investigative Committee charged 22 Ukrainian military officials with genocide in absentia, according to the Russian News Agency.
Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Valery Geletey, former General Staff head Viktor Muzhenko, as well as 20 other Ukrainian military officials have been charged with the crime, the Committee's press office said after a meeting held by Committee head Alexander Bastrykin.
The committee said that during its investigation, it analyzed a large number of documents, in addition to other information.
"The evidence contained in these documents made it possible to expand the charges for certain suspects from among high-ranking Ukrainian servicemen involved in the death of Donbass civilians."
Russia also began an investigation after a violent video, purportedly showing the abuse of prisoners of war at the hands of the Ukrainian military, surfaced online.
The Investigative Committee stated Sunday that “the video circulating online shows captured soldiers being shot in the legs with medical assistance."
According to the Committee, the location of the videos is speculated to be in the eastern region of Kharkov, which is a hub for Ukrainian nationalists. Several horrifying videos allegedly shot at the same undisclosed location surfaced online over the weekend.
The actions being investigated by the Russian committee fall in line with the general discourse used by Ukrainian military officials, as seen recently in the request made by the head of the "Mobile Hospital" project in Ukraine's army, Gennady Druzenko, to castrate Russian prisoners during an interview with channel Ukraine 24.
