Video posted on social media shows the beheading of a suspected Ukrainian prisoner of war by Russian-speaking men.
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Posted on 04/12/2023 13:07
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Message published by Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, April 12, denouncing a video showing the beheading of a man believed to be a Ukrainian prisoner. (SCREEN PHOTO)
Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted very quickly. The video showing the beheading of a suspected Ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife appeared on Tuesday (April 11) on Russian Telegram channels. At 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the President of Ukraine grabbed his cell phone and, in a tired, low voice, posted a statement on his social media. “No one should ignore how easily these beasts kill. This video of the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner must open the eyes of the world. This video shows the Russians as they are.”
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For a little over a minute in this video we see a man in uniform dying. Yellow armband of the Ukrainian army on his arm, he lies on the ground of a forest. Another in camouflage uniform speaks Russian. Knife in hand, he slits her throat before showing the severed head to the camera. There is no evidence as to where and when filming could have taken place.
Kiev has so far launched a preliminary investigation and authenticated the video, and authorities have said they are trying to identify the victim. The Kremlin, for its part, demanded to verify the “authenticity” of this video about Russian Presidency spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who speaks of “terrible images”.
UN calls for ‘a real investigation’
The UN human rights mission in Ukraine was “appalled”. She also mentions a second video showing “the mutilated bodies of what appear to be Ukrainian prisoners of war” and therefore calls for “these incidents to be subjected to a real investigation and the perpetrators to be held accountable”. The same message from the European Union: The EU will demand “accountability from all perpetrators and accomplices of war crimes” in Ukraine, Nabila Massrali, spokeswoman for the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, said on Wednesday.
In early March, a video showing a Ukrainian prisoner being murdered at close range circulated on the Internet. First, the Ministry of Defense identified a female soldier, Tymofiï Shadoura, before returning a few days later. It was another soldier, Oleksandr Matsiyevski.
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