NYT Confirms Authenticity Of Videos Showing Russian PoWs Getting Killed By Ukrainians

The New York Times has confirmed that videos circulating online of more than ten Russian Prisoners of War (PoW) getting executed by Ukrainians were filmed in the village of Makiivka at the time of its recapture by the Ukrainian forces.

"By comparing the videos to satellite imagery, The Times confirmed that the videos had been filmed at a farmhouse in the village. Some of the videos are part of a series of four drone videos circulated on Nov. 12 by a pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel reporting the recapture of Makiivka. The Times verified that the other aerial videos had also recently been filmed in the village," the newspaper said on Sunday.

The New York Times emphasized that in the videos the Russian soldiers can be seen lying dead, positioned as they were when they surrendered.

"It looks like most of them were shot in the head," Dr. Rohini Haar, medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights, told the newspaper, adding "There are pools of blood. That indicates that they were just left there dead. There appears to have been no effort to pick them up or help them."

War crimes prosecution expert at Utrecht University Iva Vukusic told The New York Times that it was difficult to determine whether a war crime had or had not been committed by Ukraine, based on the video evidence. Meanwhile, Dr. Haar said that when they surrendered, the Russian soldiers had been lying down, apparently unarmed.

"They're considered hors de combat, or noncombatants  effectively prisoners of war," the medical adviser stressed.

The New York Times said that the videos of the execution "offer a rare look into one gruesome moment among many in the war, but do not show how or why the Russian soldiers were killed."