United Nations

U.N. Urges Investigation Into Videos of Alleged POW Abuse by Russia and Ukraine

A top United Nations human rights official said "any ill treatment" of prisoners of war must stop immediately

Marko Djurica | Reuters

A top United Nations official has called on both Russia and Ukraine to investigate videos that appear to show their soldiers mistreating prisoners of war during the conflict in Ukraine.

The government in Kyiv has said it is looking into one video that purports to show Ukrainians shooting Russian prisoners in the legs.

The commander of Ukraine’s army has suggested that the graphic video is a staged act of propaganda.NBC News was unable to authenticate the video.

Click here for complete coverage of the crisis in Ukraine.

The Kremlin — whose own disinformation efforts have ranged from accusing the United States of running a network of nonexistent "biolabs" across Ukraine to denying it has launched a war at all — said it is also investigating the video.

Matilda Bogner, head of the U.N.’s human rights office in Ukraine, said at a news briefing Monday that her team was in the process of verifying a number of videos, but that "on the face of it, it does raise serious concerns."

Read the full story here on NBCNews.com

Russian nuclear forces have been on high alert during the war with Ukraine, though experts agree the threat of nuclear weapons actually being used remains low. If Russia were to use nuclear weapons at all, the most likely usage would be a smaller "tactical" bomb that would impact a battlefield or military installation. NBCLX storyteller Clark Fouraker speaks with Sarah Bidgood from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
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