In late June, a drone-footage video appeared on Russian-language social-media channels that showed three soldiers walking down a road. One of the soldiers is badly wounded by a strike from the drone and seems to signal to one of the other soldiers to shoot him in the head. That soldier unhesitatingly complies and then hurries further on.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following video contains images some people may find disturbing.
Russian state television and other pro-Kremlin media were quick to assert without evidence that the footage showed Ukrainian soldiers.
“This video clearly shows their animal nature and the fascist ideology that is embedded in their subcortex,” a man identified as a veteran said on Rossia-24, a major state-run channel, on July 4.
The journalist in the same report was equally contemptuous.
“The attitude on display…treating their own like a pest insect,” she intones. “Without even looking at what was going on, his comrade cynically shoots him in the head.”
However, Systema and Current Time have determined that the soldiers were Russian, not Ukrainian.
Systema, RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, and Current Time, a Russian-language network run by RFE/RL, have obtained the original drone video in high resolution from personnel of the 118th Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the unit that was flying the drone. In addition, the journalists were given a second video from the first-person view (FPV) drone that carried out the strike. Analysis of these materials has enabled Systema and Current Time to pinpoint with a high degree of certainty the exact location of the incident, to establish that the incident was not staged, and to conclude that the soldiers involved were Russian servicemen.
Outside Robotyne
After the soldier is shot in the video, the camera follows the two fleeing soldiers and scans past a rusted and burned-out infantry fighting vehicle by the roadside. DefMon3, a feed on the social-media site X that specializes in open-source intelligence analysis, has identified the vehicle as one that was destroyed by Russian forces in August 2023. A pro-Russian Telegram channel posted video of the destruction of the vehicle on August 16, 2023, with precise geolocation outside Robotyne, a village in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhya region that has been the scene of intense fighting for months.
The vehicle, its position, and the surrounding terrain in the 2023 video and the June videos almost certainly attest that this is the same spot.
The coordinates of the location published by the Russian Telegram channels in 2023 indicate a point just north of Robotyne. Google Earth images of the coordinates date from 2019 and clearly show the same spot before it was scarred and pitted by combat.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has maintained an interactive online map showing the positions of both sides on any date. According to the ISW map on June 22, the date the shooting video appeared on social media and the date indicated in the metadata of the videos obtained by Systema and Current Time, Robotyne was held by Russian forces, while the location of the incident was just outside the zone of Russian control.
WATCH: Geolocation Of The Place Where The Russian Soldier Was Killed (Russian-Language Video)
Russia’s Defense Ministry asserted on May 15 that its forces had captured Robotyne. A Ukrainian military report the same day showed Ukrainian forces holding positions north of the settlement.
The soldiers in the video, then, were moving south, heading toward the Russian positions.
The AK-12
The June 22 video gives a clear view of the weapon used to shoot the soldier. The all-black body and the distinctive toothed detailing along the top identify it as an AK-12, one of the newest Kalashnikov models. It was first released in 2018 and was in wide use by the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. A new version of the AK-12 was released in 2023.
A graphic video published by Russian media in October 2023 appears to show Russian soldiers in the Robotyne area armed with the new model AK-12.
Although Ukrainian forces do not normally have access to the AK-12, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry in March 2022 identified a 2018 version of the weapons as one that was captured and in the future “will work against its former masters.”
Telltale Waistband
The high-resolution video obtained by Systema and Current Time shows details that cannot be distinguished in the videos posted earlier on social media. For a moment, the drone-camera operator gives a fairly close-up view of the wounded soldier before he is shot by his comrade.
No unit markings or other insignia can be seen on his uniform. But as he writhes in pain, the waistband of his underwear can be distinguished peaking out from under his camo pants. The brand name BOKAI is clearly visible. Bokai is a low-cost brand that is widely available across Russia. It is freely available on major Russian online shopping sites, including Yandex, Ozon, and Wildberries.
Although Bokai is often marketed in Russia as having been produced in the Ivanovo region, it’s official certification confirms it is produced in China. Theoretically, that could mean it would be available in Ukraine, but RFE/RL and Current Time were unable to locate Bokai underwear for sale on any Ukrainian online shopping site. The Ukrainian version of the Chinese Aliexpress online retailer’s app also does not feature the brand. In the entire Ukrainian Internet domain (.ua), journalists found only three instances of this brand of underwear being sold. One was from a chain of stores in the eastern city of Donetsk, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014. A second one linked would-be customers to the Russian Yandex Marketplace site.
The third instance featured Bokai long, thermal underwear for sale at a market in the city of Shostka in the northeastern Sumy region, about 60 kilometers from the Russian border. By all accounts, the vendor has not worked since 2022 and the Bokai underwear is listed as “unavailable.”
‘I Was…Shocked’
Systema and Current Time were allowed to speak with the Ukrainian drone operator with the 118th Brigade who filmed the shooting of the wounded soldier. He uses the call sign Shustriy.
He said that he had received information that there were Russian soldiers in his area. While searching, he saw what appeared to be four bodies in a trench. One of them was clearly dead, while Shustriy did not see any blood or flies around the others.
At that point, apparently, the men heard the sound of the approaching FPV drone, jumped up, and began running.
The FPV drone struck the second soldier in the line.
“It was clear that he was not going to get up,” Shustriy said, “that his legs were broken and that there was no chance medics would get to him. His comrade ran up to him, and he made a gesture with his hand as if to say, ‘Finish me off, please.’ And the soldier, without any hesitation, immediately blasted him.”
“I was a bit shocked,” Shustriy added. “He was his comrade. But you just up and kill him. They might have at least taken a second to drag him into the bushes.”
The operator of the FPV drone, with the call sign Tikhonya, said the two other soldiers attempted to hide in some brush. But they were located, and the drone attacked them as well. Shustriy said all three of the men on the original video were killed that day.
Systema and Current Time were unable to independently verify that claim.