MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has opened an investigation after video footage was published on social media showing what appears to be a military police brutally beating contract soldiers on their way to Ukraine with a baton and using a stun gun against them.

In the videos, a man in a Russian military police uniform is shown walking up to one of the soldiers and beating him to the ground with a baton while shouting at him and shocking him with an electric shock gun. .

Another soldier carrying a stick is shown being beaten and stunned at gunpoint while a man in a military police uniform demands that they strip.

The time stamp of the video, distributed on Telegram by Russian war correspondents, is January 16 and local authorities said the events took place in a unit in Kyzyl, in the southern Siberian region of Tuva.

It is not clear what led to such beating of the soldiers. Russian war correspondents say that wounded soldiers have been released from the hospital to return to the front lines in Ukraine.

The regional government of Tuva said in a statement on its website that an investigation had been opened after the videos appeared.

“In one of them, on January 16, 2025, cases of ill-treatment of contract soldiers were recorded in military unit No. 55115, including beatings and use of electric shock guns before they were sent to SVO,” the Tuva government said.

SVO is the acronym Russia uses to describe what it officially calls a “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.

“The perpetrators have been identified, a pre-investigation check has been made against them, and an assessment of the circumstances of the incident will be given according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and the perpetrators will be punished,” the regional government said.

The defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment.