After a thorough investigation by independent Russian journalists, the Russian soldier suspected of “castrating a Ukrainian captive” in a revolting video has been identified.
reputable independent media in Russia The Insider identified the alleged offender as 1993-born Ochur-Suge Mongush.
The Insider claims that despite Mongush’s denial of the charge when confronted with it, he “gave himself away by getting confused in his own testimony.”
On July 28, horrifying video of the war crime surfaced, showing a soldier removing the victim’s genitalia with a box-cutting knife and holding them up to the camera. Later, the victim receives a headshot.
The Pryvillya Sanatorium, which Russian forces seized control of in early July in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk region, was geolocated as the scene in the video.
Mongush claimed that the FSB had held him for two days while they examined the videos but had determined that they were forgeries, according to Bellingcat investigators who had also located him.
Mongush stated over the phone that when she was with them on the second day, they realised it wasn’t her and revealed that Ukrainian soldiers had carried out the mutilation themselves because the victim had raped a ten-year-old girl.
Then someone discovered this [spliced-together] video, which started all of this nonsense. They found him, punished him. (…) After two days, the FSB officers realised everything and let me go.
He also claimed that he had never held a gun in his hands and that he had only been accompanying Russian journalists. The Insider was exiled by Putin’s government at the beginning of the war.
However, both reputable investigative publications assert that they have unequivocally established that Mongush is the person who performed the castration.
His signature cowboy hat and a distinctive bracelet, which he wore in the offending video as well as in other clips that clearly show his face and which he has acknowledged were him, allowed him to be recognized.
The Insider further claimed that the man’s identification was verified through the use of video analysis and contemporary facial recognition technology, dispelling any remaining uncertainties.
The “castrator” in Russian military garb hails from the same part of Siberia as Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu: the isolated Republic of Tuva, which borders Outer Mongolia.
He also held a position in the Russian ministry for emergencies, which was formerly led by Shoigu, who is in charge of all Russian military.
Despite the fact that he can be seen in photographs of the “Akhmat” combatants, including those shot in Chechnya, “sadist” Mongush denied fighting with Ramzan Kadyrov’s Akhmat unit.
He insisted that he had never held a gun in his hands, but he posted images of weapons on his now-deleted Vkontakte page.
Both The Insider and Bellingcat claim that other names of pro-Putin fighters that had been previously identified by Ukrainian sources were incorrect.
According to a thorough report by The Insider, Ochur-Suge Mongush, a mercenary from the Akhmat battalion, was the sadist who tortured the Ukrainian prisoner of war.
The horrifying video, which exhibits no signs of editing, was first shared with approval by pro-Kremlin organizations.
Russian groups later dismissed them as fake as scandal surrounded the incident, but it now seems that the castration was real.
Researchers discovered Mongush’s social media accounts and contact information thanks to image recognition.
The suspect claimed to Bellingcat that he had served with Kadyrov’s forces in Ukraine and had returned from the conflict “more than a month ago.”
He received the violent castration tapes immediately after they were extensively circulated by Russian journalists he had met in Ukraine.
Look at the garbage that’s been taped about you, they said, according to him.
They advised him to speak with the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB), which he did. The FSB then seems to have offered him a pretext.
Officers informed him that the violent incident depicted in the films involved Ukrainian soldiers, not Russian ones, and that it had been recorded after he had departed Ukraine.
The Azot plant photos that were utilised by researchers “are 100% mine, while the others are not…”
I’m not willing to engage in that type of nonsense, and I hardly fired a shot from the weapons they handed me, he retorted.
“If it was Ukrainian soldiers in the video, as he claims the FSB told him, he did not provide any explanation as to how these soldiers got to be wearing a strikingly similar cap, bracelet, ribbon, and uniform as he was seen wearing in other recordings,” Bellingcat stated.
Despite the fact that he can be seen standing right next to a white car in [one] video, he also insisted that he never saw it and that Akhmat did not use it.
Additionally, The Insider deemed Mongush’s denial to be unreliable.
If you believe Mongush, it appears that the AFU [Ukrainian] fighters discovered a video in which a specific rapist makes fun of a Ukrainian soldier and then, for some reason, mounted it so that the rapist looked exactly like Mongush, down to the smallest details like patterns on the hat and bracelets.
That the Ukrainians “truly intended to malign an unknown Tuvan for some reason” was implausible.
The terrible video was posted by Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun, who called for the war crime to be prosecuted.
She responded, “Russia has to pay for it.”
“Give Ukraine the weaponry we need to put a permanent end to this nightmare.” The world cannot maintain denial that this is taking place.