• Videos appear to show Russian soldiers shooting and castrating Ukrainian soldier.
• The Ukrainian government has opened an investigation into the matter.
• UN has called torture and executions of prisoners of war “war crimes”.

Videos that appear to show Russian soldiers shooting and castrating a tied and gagged Ukrainian soldier are making the rounds on social media.

This has prompted the Ukrainian government to look into probable acts of torture and prompted the UN to accuse Russia of possible war crimes.

In the three videos, a soldier wearing what appear to be yellow and blue patches—the colours of the Ukrainian flag—is seen being shot after first being gagged and then having his hands tied behind his back.

The footage originally surfaced on a pro-Russian Telegram channel and subsequently spread rapidly on social media.

The recordings outrage the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, according to their statement.

The Monitoring Mission stated in a statement released late Friday that “torture and summary executions of prisoners of war and persons hors de combat are war crimes.”

An investigation into the matter has been opened, according to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office “based on the results of the video, which reveals that individuals dressed in the uniforms of members of the Russian Federation’s armed forces are torturing a Ukrainian military prisoner.

The victim is shown being gagged in the video that appears to be the first, surrounded by at least four men, one of whom appears to be wearing a Russian uniform with the “Z” symbol linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The same man can be seen groaning on the ground in a second video as a man in what seems to be a Russian uniform and blue surgical gloves lops off his underwear with a box cutter.

Castrating him with the same box cutter, the man then displays the severed genitalia to the camera. The offenders can be heard in the video saying “hold him, hold him” in Russian.

The third film depicts shooting the bound and dismembered man in the skull and dragging him away.

The UN Monitoring Mission said on Facebook it “is appalled by the latest videos, apparently showing the beating, castration and shooting of a captured soldier from the Ukrainian Armed Forces by a man, who appears to be a member of the Russian armed forces or affiliated armed groups.”