Man in video claims he was a Ukrainian field surgeon involved in selling eyes he cuts from Russian prisoners
Russia is investigating self-incriminating claims by a person claiming to be a Ukrainian military surgeon who is recorded implying that he was involved in the extraction of organs from Russian prisoners of war (POWs), and in their sale on the black market.
The head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Aleksandr Bastrykin, has ordered a probe into video footage that went viral on Russian social media this week, the agency said in a statement on Thursday.
The roughly minute-long clip appears to show a heated TeleLink exchange between “Vladimir Vasilievich,” a man claiming to be a Ukrainian field medic, and somebody he branded as a “Rashist … blogger,” using a pejorative word for “Russian.”
The recording was partially redacted but ‘Vladimir’s interlocutor appears to taunt him before the self-described field surgeon makes his claims, presumably asking his subject about whether he’d amputated the legs of Ukrainian soldiers.
“I mostly cut off the legs of your pigs, also their arms and eyes. Do you know how much grannies in Germany pay for [eyes]?” he responded.
“I cut out eyes, and kidneys, and liver from you 27-year-old [redacted],” the man is heard ranting in a mocking tone.
‘Vladimir’ also claimed that he denied anesthesia to injured Russians in his care, ignoring instructions from his superiors. “I cut out their eyes … and enjoy it,” he declared.