President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday denounced Russian “monsters” after the publication on social networks of a video showing the beheading of a suspected Ukrainian prisoner of war.
“How easily these monsters kill. This video of the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war, the world must see it. This is a video of Russia as it is,” he said in a posted video. on Instagram.
“It’s not an accident (…) It happened already earlier. It was like that in Boutcha. Thousands of times,” he continued, referring to the suburbs of Kiev that have become symbol of the atrocities attributed to the Russian army. “Prison sentences for murderers, court in the State of evil”, he added.
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba denounced the “horrible video of Russian soldiers beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war” while believing that Russia was “worse than the Islamic State”, a jihadist organization which filmed the executions of its hostages, especially by decapitation.
“Russian terrorists must be kicked out of Ukraine and the UN and held accountable for their crimes,” he said on Twitter.
The video, one minute forty seconds of unbearable images, has been circulating since Tuesday. In this one, a man in camouflage, his face masked, slices the neck of another man in uniform struggling on the ground, shouting “it hurts”.
After a few seconds, the screams stop and we hear a man behind the camera inciting the executioner in Russian to “cut off the head” of the victim. The latter finishes his decapitation with a knife, and shows the severed head to the camera.
“You have to put it in the bag and send it to the commander” said a voice in Russian. On camera, we also show the victim’s vest crossed out with the Ukrainian trident and a skull.
Moscow did not react immediately either to the video or to the Ukrainian accusations. Usually, Russian officials limit themselves to denying any involvement of Russian soldiers in war crimes, and accuse Ukraine of orchestrating the scenes.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Kyiv and Moscow have accused each other of mistreating prisoners amounting to war crimes.
In early March, a video showing the alleged execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war by Russian soldiers caused shock in Ukraine.
In November, the Kremlin was outraged by two videos showing the alleged execution of a dozen Russian soldiers who had just surrendered to Ukrainian forces.
In late March, the UN accused Ukrainian and Russian forces of committing summary executions of prisoners of war during the invasion.
Russia also denies, despite corroborating evidence, the summary executions of civilians, in particular in Boutcha, near Kiev, a year ago.
12/04/2023 11:27:53 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
