Trigger warnings.
These stories are still unfolding, and they have not fully hit the mainstream media yet, but both are bad.
First, multiple Ukrainian POWs, some of them the defenders of Mariupol, have been killed in a blast that completely incinerated a detention center / “filtration camp” near Olenivka (Donetsk oblast close to the front line).
www.bbc.com/…
While Russian media predictably blame Ukraine, independent bloggers (Michael Nackie and Alex Plyuschev) point that the damage shown in the video footage is inconsistent with an airstrike or a shelling, and the whole story looks more like a coverup of something even worse than just Russia massacring POWs (at least 40 dead).
What can be worse than POWs being massacred? A hint to that may be in the video discussed in the same podcast (I will not link to it), where a Ukrainian prisoner of war is castrated with a boxcutter, then killed, then his body further desecrated — likely by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group.
www.rferl.org/…
Now I go into speculation territory to guess that the POWs whose badly charred bodies were found at Olenivka were tortured (possibly to death) prior to the blast.
This is not the first time I see absolutely gut-churning videos in closed Telegram channels (what the Wagner group did to prisoners in Syria is just… I’m at a loss for words), but there is a common theme here that the media are finally picking up on — borrowing a title from Adam Serwer, cruelty is the point.
Friday, Jul 29, 2022 · 11:12:20 PM +00:00 · kalmoth
An active OSINT effort is currently underway to identify the persons in the video of the POW torture and killing (in particular, the one with the boxcutter), despite a false-flag campaign already run by pro-Russian bots.
Saturday, Jul 30, 2022 · 12:26:12 AM +00:00 · kalmoth
According to a source I trust, the story on reddit purportedly outing the boxcutter perp may be planted. There also may be confusion between two similarly-looking brothers, so I am not going to name any names unless at least 80% sure.