After looking at the footage circulating on social media claiming to be footage of Russian troops executing Ukrainian prisoners, the United Nations determined it was likely genuine.

Jeremy Lawrence, spokesman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), confirmed in a phone call with Yonhap News Agency on 8 March that the AFP news agency reported that the UN believes the video could be real.

The video is the basis for the Ukrainian government's recent call to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate it as a war crime.

The 12-second video, which circulated on social media, shows a Ukrainian soldier standing unarmed in a trench, smoking a cigarette before being shot dead by an automaton.

In the video, the soldier leaves the words "glory be to Ukraine" before being shot, followed shortly thereafter by someone firing multiple shots along with profanity.

Based on the fact that the profanity was Russian, meaning "die dog**" and the use of automatic weapons, it was assumed that Russian troops shot and killed unarmed prisoners.

Separately from the ICC, Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have criminalized the incident in this video and are investigating it.

"The video, which has spread on social media, shows a Ukrainian soldier being executed by Russian forces, and preliminary checks of the video suggest that it most likely contains the actual situation," Lawrence said.

In October last year, the UN Human Rights Council said in a report by an independent commission of inquiry that it had identified a number of war crimes in Ukraine, including mass executions, illegal detention, torture and sexual assault.

The vast majority of war crimes committed by Russian troops in occupied territories, and some cases of war crimes against international law have been identified by Ukrainian forces, the United Nations said.

Since then, the Independent Commission of Inquiry has expanded its scope and scope to investigate war crimes.

(Photo = Social media video capture, Yonhap News)