Ukrainian officials have launched an investigation into gruesome footage showing an unarmed soldier shot and killed by Russian forces just after he issued a final battle cry.
The disturbing images, which quickly circulated social media, were addressed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his late night address on Monday.
“A video emerged today of the occupiers brutally killing a warrior who bravely said to their face, ‘Glory to Ukraine!’” Zelensky said. “I want us all to respond to his words together, in unity: ‘Glory to the hero! Glory to the heroes! Glory to Ukraine!’ And we will find the murderers.”
It is unclear when and where the footage was taken and it has not been verified – but it once again raises the specter of Russian soldiers committing heinous war crimes more than a year after the invasion of Ukraine.
The video shows a soldier smoking a cigarette. He recites “glory to Ukraine” in Ukrainian before apparently being shot by an unseen gunman or gunmen.
The man quickly collapses into a shallow hole dug in the ground when a voice is heard saying “that, bra” in Russian.
The soldier, according to images, had a badge of the Ukrainian flag on his arm from his uniform.
Ukraine’s chief prosecutor has announced that a criminal investigation into the alleged execution is underway.
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“Even war has its own laws,” said Andriy Kostin, the country’s attorney general. “There are rules of international law that are systematically ignored by the Russian criminal regime. But sooner or later there will be a penalty.”
Andriy Yermak, the head of Kiev’s presidential office, said the man was a Ukrainian prisoner of war and that the shooting was part of Moscow’s “deliberate terror policy”.
“The murder of a prisoner is the latest Russian war crime,” Yermak wrote in a tweet. “For every such war crime there will be retribution.”
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, numerous war crimes allegations have been leveled against the Kremlin by Kiev and Western allies, estimated to number in the thousands.
Moscow has denied acts of barbarism and targeted attacks against civilians.
Zelensky estimated that more than 70,000 Russian war crimes have been committed so far when he met with US Attorney General Merrick Garland and top European officials on Friday.
With post threads
