Russian media and telegram channels report it. According to reports, Kostyantyn Nikitenko allegedly drove around Mariupol and "shot at people for a laugh." According to the Russian propagandist Dmytro Steshin, it seems that the Ukrainian military himself posted a video of this on the Internet.

As StopFake writes, the video from the cockpit of the armored personnel carrier shows how a group of people fall into the field of view of the armored vehicle. At first, the crew was unsure whether it was the Ukrainian or Russian military. Convinced that they were Russians, they opened fire. There is no visible evidence of the presence of civilians in the video. Only people in military uniform can be seen in the spot shots. The dialogues inside the armored car do not mention civilians nor reflect that this is "entertainment." It can also be seen that a group of soldiers, having noticed an armored personnel carrier, is trying to hide. The video was first published on April 24 on his Telegram channel by People's Deputy Yury Mysyagin, deputy of the VRU Committee on National Security, Defense, and Intelligence, as an illustration of the fact that a Ukrainian armored personnel carrier destroyed a group of Russian soldiers. The video metadata on Miyagin's channel indicates only the file's date of creation - April 24, 2022. Since the first publication of the video, there has been no evidence or mention of shooting at civilians in Mariupol.

For the first time, information about this emerged on July 9, after it became known about the verdict of the so-called tribunal on the death penalty for two captured Azov fighters. Kostyantyn Nikitenko allegedly shot civilians of Mariupol during combat missions, and his colleague Mykola "Frost" Kush allegedly killed captured marines. The so-called Minister of Justice of the "DNR," Yuriy Syrovatko, also stated that the fighters were "convicted" for their alleged crimes. But after that, there was no additional information about the "court" or the fate of the Ukrainian military.

Due to the spread of fakes, the so-called DPR is trying to justify crimes against Ukrainian service members captured by illegal military formations.