A supposedly gruesome find in Ukraine:
This photo of a box full of dental crowns is being circulated claiming that it came from a Russian torture chamber in Pisky-Radkivski.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense posted the picture on Twitter, drawing parallels to the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz.
The post implied that the crowns were pulled from Ukrainian torture victims or dead by Russian soldiers – but there are doubts about this claim.
What’s the deal with the photo?
Apparently the teeth did not come from the tortured or the dead, but from the practice of the local dentist.
In an interview with the picture, the man named Sergey explains that the teeth came from his patients and were apparently stolen by the Russians because they thought the stainless steel was gold.
“(…) If they were found here, they must be mine.” – Dentist Sergey vs. “Picture”
But even if, in view of these statements, the photo of the dental crowns apparently has no connection to torture, there are repeated allegations of torture against Russia in the context of the Ukraine war.
For example, British and Ukrainian prisoners of war report physical and psychological torture by Russian soldiers.
In this context, the UN speaks of a “dramatic increase in rights violations”. It goes on to say that there is growing evidence of torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners.
The UN also accuses Ukraine of crimes such as arbitrary arrests and kidnappings. In addition, Russian prisoners of war were also mistreated.
Unlike Russia, Ukraine had given the UN “unrestricted” access to detention centers.
How do we check videos for manipulation in the editorial office? It is important to look at the details. The individual frames of a video often reveal whether a video has been edited. We take a close look at each image and enlarge individual sections. Indications of a fake are, for example: lack of motion blur, unnatural shadows or editing errors. The general rule at stern is: Seriousness before speed. We always double-check facts and material thoroughly before publishing them. For this we work with the cross-editorial “Team Verification” together with RTL, NTV, RTL2, Radio NRW.