Malaya Rohan

class=notpageimage|

Location of Malaya Rohan in the Kharkiv Oblast, in Ukraine

The torture of Russian soldiers in Malaya Rohan is a video purporting to show a case of torture during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, which occurred in the village of Malaya Rohan in the Kharkiv District of the Kharkiv Oblast. The video shows a group of Ukrainian soldiers mocking and torturing Russian prisoners of war. According to the international humanitarian organization Human Rights Watch, if confirmed, the incident will qualify as a war crime.^[1]

Video

The video shows five people in military uniforms lying on the floor with their hands tied and their legs shot through. Three more people are brought into the room and shot through their legs, as well as one is beaten in the face with the butt of a machine gun. The interrogation of prisoners by a man is heard behind the scenes, as well as a conversation in Russian without a foreign accent, presumably on a walkie-talkie.^[1]

History

On the morning of March 27, two videos were posted on Reddit and Twitter, and later a more complete version appeared on YouTube, 2 minutes longer.^[1] The Times reported the videos had been promoted by Maria Dubovnikova of the Russian International Affairs Council, their original source is unclear.^[2] According to Checknews, the fact-checking service of Libération, the videos were posted by soldiers of the Kraken special forces associated with the Azov regiment, which allegedly fought nearby.^[3]

BBC , based on weather conditions, suggests that the video could have been shot on March 26, and according to the position of the Sun, calls the early hours of the day the shooting time.^[4] France 24, based on weather conditions, suggests that the video could have been filmed between March 11 and 27.^[3]

Open data researcher Erich Auerbach reported that the action takes place on a farm in the village of Malaya Rohan, 18 km east of the center of Kharkiv. This geolocation was confirmed by Human Rights Watch and the Washington Post. According to the statements of the Ukrainian side, this village was liberated by the Ukrainian Armed Forces two days before the first videos appeared.^[1][5]

The Ukrainians in the video wore blue armbands, which are usually used by Ukrainian forces. The POWs were carrying red and white armbands; the Russian colouring. According to Human Rights Watch, the affiliation of the perpetrators of violence to regular units, territorial defense or other formations is unclear: they are dressed in different uniforms, hold different weapons and have different equipment in the absence of obvious insignia.^[1] According to Nick Reynolds, a military expert at the Royal United Institute of Defense Studies, the weapons in the video look like machine guns, which are used in camouflaged form by the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine, but slightly different from what he had previously seen; he also noted that the parties to the conflict use each other's weapons.^[4]

Later evidence

On March 28, Yuri Butosov [ru], the editor-in-chief of Ukrainian website Censor.net [ru], Yuri Butusov posted a video showing a farm in Malaya Rohan and the badly burned remains of three people. According to him, the video was shot a few hours after the fighting stopped, and the dead were wearing Russian uniforms. Human Rights Watch notes that in this video, the farm area suffered from explosions and fire, which is not present in the original video.^[1]

Also on March 28, journalists of the publication "Frans-Press" visited Malaya Rohan. They reported that they had seen two corpses of Russian soldiers on the street and two in a well, and also cited the words of the Ukrainian military about the capture of five Russian prisoners, one of whom was shot while trying to escape.^[6][1]

Reactions

From Ukrainian authorities

Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, said that the unlawful treatment of prisoners qualifies as a war crime and should be punished; according to him, an investigation will be conducted, and the inadmissibility of such will be brought to the personnel and defense forces.^[1]

Valery Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, called the video staged, without providing evidence in favor of it, and accused Russia of creating it to discredit the Ukrainian forces.^[1][5]

Irina Venediktova, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, said that evidence was needed, and that if the military from the Ukrainian side turned out to be guilty, they would be brought to trial.^[2]

From Russian authorities

Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, said that the videos contain "monstrous footage" and should be investigated by lawyers.^[2]

See also

• War crimes during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

References