I am appalled.  I am sickened.  I’m angry.  I’m distressed.  What has brought me to this point?  There are graphic videos being shared online which purport to show the torture of prisoners of war at the hands of Ukrainian servicemen.

“The video circulating online shows captured soldiers being shot in the legs without medical assistance,” the Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement on Sunday. The head of the Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, has ordered “investigators to establish all the circumstances of the incident, collect and record evidence and identify all the persons involved in it to subsequently bring them to justice.”

While it was not immediately clear where or when the disturbing videos were shot, some reports indicate the incident unfolded at a military compound located in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkov, which is used by “nationalist” units.

Read more: Russia investigates alleged footage of Ukrainian troops torturing POWs

The videos circulating on social media claim that Russian soldiers, taken as prisoners, are being shot by members of the Azov Battalion.  And there are additional videos showing Azov’s inhumane treatment of Ukrainian civilians.

If you have not already seen them, a link to the videos can be found on Juan Sinmiedo’s Telegram channel HERE.  But they come with a warning.  Do not watch them if you have a sensitive nature, they will leave you feeling traumatised.  The description of them is horrendous enough.

Here is one of those videos.

WARNING – THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS BOTH GRAPHIC AND EXTREMELY DISTRESSING

Yesterday, Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting from Ukraine, made a video report: Woman Found Tortured in School Basement “Military Base” in Mariupol.  The video is age restricted, in order to view it YouTube “sign in” is required.

In another video report yesterday, Patrick Lancaster interviewed refugees from Mariupol.  Refugees state that it is Russian forces who are moving people out of Mariupol for their own safety. “The help only came from the Russian side,” one refugee said.

Another told Lancaster: “We spent a month in a bomb shelter [in Mariupol]. 160 people in a very small room. Without light, without water and without food. We drank snow, rainwater. We found grubby technical water and drank it, and we gave it to our children as well.  All the time we were fired upon by the Azov. They all stood in our yards, shooting from their guns, attracting attention. They knew perfectly well that they covered themselves with our inhabitants, they covered themselves with us.  They knew that Russian troops would not fire on civilians.”

“In western Ukraine, in Europe and the USA they say that Azov is trying to do something good for people. – They don’t try anything. I don’t know who is trying that, Azov is killing people and destroying the city. That is all.”

In the meantime, the BBC interviewed a Ukrainian soldier sporting an infamous Nazi symbol on his uniform.

Click on the image below to watch the video on Rumble.

And the BBC now claims that Ukraine’s Azov Battalion is not a Nazi military formation and that anyone claiming otherwise is repeating Russian propaganda. However, the BBC itself for the last 8 years has covered not only Azov’s Nazism, but the wider threat growing Nazism has played both inside Ukraine and beyond.

If The New Atlas’ video is removed from YouTube, you can watch it on Rumble HERE.

I want an investigation, now!  I call on the UK government to do the same as the Russian government – investigate.  And I call on every UK citizen to demand of their MPs that an urgent and serious Parliamentary debate takes place immediately.

This is not about which flag you fly on social media; this is not about which political party you support.  This is about human suffering.  This is about war crimes. Not the type of war crimes as advertised by the BBC against the head of one state, one side of the conflict, to create a perception or narrative, to garner public support.  But war crimes against people regardless of nationality. 

An honest and truthful investigation by the UK government as to who the perpetrators are is urgently needed.  I have long given up on the BBC having any journalistic integrity or stopping their activism journalism, but if the government does not call these crimes out and investigate, then they will fall down the same slippery slope of no return and I have no intention of them dragging me with them.  Their actions are for them, and them alone to answer.

If the UK government is too entrenched in a particular narrative – disregarding what is true and right – to be capable of conducting a satisfactory investigation then I call for independent investigators to be appointed.  Investigators the British public can trust.

And I’m not yet finished.

If a trustworthy investigation proves the UK government and corporate media have knowingly supported the creation of a war in Ukraine and encouraged others to cheer for their chosen side like it’s all some macabre game show, then it is time for them to man-up and right the wrongs they have committed both personally and as institutions.  Either that or stand down and let those that represent the people – who have truth, freedom and liberal democracy as guiding principles – govern.