kyiv claims to have identified one of its soldiers in an execution video and calls for an investigation

A video “horrible”proof of a “war crime” committed by Russian troops. The Ukrainian army affirmed, Tuesday March 7, to have identified one of its soldiers who, prisoner, seems to have been killed by bursts of bullets after having declared “Glory to Ukraine”in a filmed execution that has gone viral. “According to preliminary data, the deceased is the soldier of the 30th mechanized brigade Tymofiï Mykolayovych Shadura”, who took part in the fighting near Bakhmout and had been considered missing since February 3, the Ukrainian Army reported on Telegram.

The military is referring to an amateur video, which has been circulating widely on social media since Monday, March 6, showing what appears to be a soldier standing in a trench smoking a cigarette and being shot with an automatic weapon after saying “Glory to Ukraine”. AFP could not independently verify where and when the footage was taken, or whether it showed, as Ukrainian officials claim, a Ukrainian prisoner of war.

Ukrainian army promises ‘inevitable revenge’

Brigade spokesman Anatoly Iavorsky told AFP that the soldier, aged 41 and mobilized in December, was from the Zhytomyr region (center-west). The body of the soldier is in occupied territory and his “definitive” identification will only be possible after his recovery and expertise, said the army, while the media mentioned the identity of another man. “Vengeance for our hero will be inevitable”, swore the army.

On Monday, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, called for an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) after the broadcast of this “Horrifying Video of Unarmed Ukrainian POW Executed by Russian Forces”. A sequence which, according to him, constitutes “another proof that this war is genocidal”. “It is imperative that [le procureur de la Cour pénale internationale] Karim Khan launches an immediate investigation into this heinous war crime”he wrote again on Twitter. “The perpetrators of these acts must be brought to justice.” These images were also mentioned by President Volodymyr Zelensky, who promised to “find the killers”.