Terrifying footage captured
the painful show of support as the shirtless man was branded by the hot iron.
In the video, the man braced himself by leaning back against a piece of scrap
metal, closing his eyes and holding onto his legs. The letter ‘Z’, which was
branded onto him, has become a sinister symbol marking support for Russia’s invasion
of Ukraine.
The video comes after a
Ukrainian prisoner of war was mutilated and brutally murdered by Russian
soldiers.
Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun
shared a now-deleted video on Twitter of the prisoner’s genitals being cut off.
She wrote: “Russian
soldier from Chechen battalion Ahmat cut off the genitals of Ukrainian POW.
“This is what Nazis are
doing to Ukrainians. Russia has to pay for it! Give Ukraine the weapons we need
to stop this nightmare once and for all. The world can’t pretend like this
isn’t happening!”
She later revealed that her
account was banned by Twitter for the distressing content.
Ms Sovsun wrote: “witter
banned my profile today. Because I posted a video where a Russian soldier
castrates a Ukrainian POW.
“Twitter decided it was
too cruel. But this is what happens. And deleting the video won’t change that.
“People should know what
#Russia is doing!”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs condemned the “brutal war crimes”, calling on the International
Criminal Court to investigate.
In a statement, it said:
“Ukraine strongly condemns the brutal war crimes committed by the
servicemen of the Russian Federation against Ukrainian prisoners of war,
particularly horrible cases of torture, physical abuse, inhuman treatment,
wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health and wilful
killing of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
