Russian Soldiers Killed After Being Lured Out by 'Combat Rabbits'—Ukraine

Ukraine's intelligence agency the SBU has shared video it says shows Ukrainian snipers killing Russian soldiers in a post which appeared to mock Russian claims about Kyiv using bioweapons labs.

On its Facebook page, the SBU posted a video captioned "combat rabbits lure orcs into position," using a derogatory term Ukraine uses to describe Russian troops.

Without giving the location or date of the unverified video, the SBU said that sniper group A of its Central Special Forces unit had killed two Russian soldiers in the incident.

The grainy video which appears to come from a camera on a sniper rifle, shows white blobs moving across a cross hair in the center of the video and soldiers trying to run away.

The screen then jerks upwards, suggesting that the weapon had been fired, with the clip describing the scenario as demonstrating "Ukraine's secret weapon at work—war rabbits."

"During the training of enemy positions on the front lines, combat rabbits, trained in the secret laboratories of the Ukrainian special services, lured a group of Russians," the post in Ukrainian said, according to a translation.

This is likely to be a reference to claims by Moscow that that bioweapons research is being undertaken in Ukraine in cahoots with the U.S. One of the claims suggested that Kyiv was developing dangerous infections using migratory birds. The claims have been dismissed internationally and by experts.

The rest of the SBU's Facebook post said: "The goal was completed, the combined group returned to the base without losses!"

It suggests that viewers watch until the end of the clip which shows a graphic of two rabbits in combat fatigues walking towards a descending helicopter.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry about Kyiv's claims, which come amid ongoing fighting in the city of Bakhmut and nearby Soledar, where Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said his troops were holding their positions.

Ukraine's authorities said on Monday that two women were killed after a market in the village of Shevchenkove in Odesa Oblast was hit by a missile fired from a Russian S-300 air defense system in the Belgorod region.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that new weapons being supplied to Kyiv, including a new tranche from the U.S., would not alter the course of the war and would "deepen the suffering of the Ukrainian people."

Peskov also said he had "absolute confidence" that the Russian defense ministry was correct in claiming that 600 Ukrainian servicemen had been killed in a strike on the city of Kramatorsk. This is despite Kyiv rejecting the claims and reports that said the attack missed its target.