Screenshot from the video

Pro-war bloggers and the Kursk region governor have condemned video footage of a Russian serviceman firing an anti-tank grenade launcher at a house in the town of Sudzha after it had been recaptured from Ukraine by Russian forces.

The footage, which appeared on pro-war Telegram channels on Monday, shows a man wearing the uniform of the Akhmat special forces, a Chechen military unit, taking aim at a two-storey building and firing.

Local Telegram channel Pepel Kursk said the weather and green foliage suggested the video had been shot in either May or June, while other Telegram channels agreed the incident occurred after Sudzha had come back under Russian control, and therefore cannot have served any military purpose.

Within hours of the video’s publication, Kursk Governor Alexander Khinshtein said that the security forces had already carried out inquiries and established the identity of the junior sergeant, who has not been named. He added that the soldier had since “died in an accident while trying to get away from traffic police”.

“He will answer for his action in another court,” Khinshtein wrote.

Sudzha was occupied by Ukrainian forces in a surprise incursion into the southwestern Russian region in August. The Russian Defence Ministry announced in April that it had completely recaptured all occupied territory.