Since Monday, footage of a captured Ukrainian soldier appearing to have been killed by a flurry of bullets after shouting “Glory to Ukraine!” “, circulating abundantly on social networks. Neither the date, nor the context, nor the authenticity of this execution video could be independently verified. The Ukrainian army, however, swore on Tuesday to avenge its soldier, who has since been erected as a hero. The point on what we know about this case.
On the video of a dozen seconds, we see a man in military uniform but unarmed smoking, stoic, a cigarette. Another man, invisible on screen, said in Russian, apparently to a comrade, “film him”.
“Glory to Ukraine!” retorts the Ukrainian. Immediately, bursts of submachine guns pierce him. The man behind the camera then blurts out, “Die, bastard.”
This video went viral Monday on social media, with many posts, photos and drawings paying tribute to this soldier, his courage and his patriotism. The phrase “Glory to Ukraine” and especially the response to it “Glory to the heroes” have also been massively taken up on social networks in Ukraine since the beginning of the week.
“We are aware of this video posted on social media which shows a disabled Ukrainian soldier apparently executed by the Russian armed forces. Based on a preliminary review, we believe the video appears authentic,” a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Wednesday.
The Office of the High Commissioner recalls having “documented numerous violations of international humanitarian law against prisoners of war, including cases of summary executions of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war”.
“Impartial and effective investigations must be carried out into all these allegations and those responsible must be held to account,” the spokesperson stressed.
“According to preliminary data, the deceased is the serviceman of the 30th mechanized brigade Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura,” the Ukrainian army said on Telegram on Tuesday, the day after the video appeared on social networks.
Brigade spokesman Anatoli Iavorsky told AFP that the 41-year-old soldier who was mobilized in December was from the Zhytomyr region (center-west). The Ukrainian army said the deceased had been missing since February 3, when he took part in the fighting near Bakhmout, in Donbass.
The body of the soldier is in occupied territory and its “definitive” identification will only be possible after its recovery and expertise, the army said, while the media mentioned the identity of another man.
“Revenge for our hero will be inevitable,” the Ukrainian army vowed on Tuesday. The day before, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, had promised to “find the assassins”, while his head of diplomacy Dmytro Kouleba had called for an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into this case.
“Horrifying video of an unarmed Ukrainian POW being executed by Russian forces for simply saying ‘Glory to Ukraine’. Another proof that this war is genocidal,” Mr. Kouleba commented on Twitter.
Russian authorities have not commented on this latest video. For his part, the boss of the paramilitary group Wagner, a frontline organization in Bakhmout at the cost of colossal losses, questioned his veracity, in response to a request for comment published on the Telegram account of his press service. “Is there any confirmation that it was filmed near Bakhmout? Any confirmation that this video is not staged, is there even minimal evidence of Wagner’s involvement? he commented.
