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This pixelated clip, just 12 seconds long, appears to show the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war. As it spread on social media, going viral on Monday, it ignited fierce anger in Ukraine, where officials and other public figures have said it shows the cruelty of invading Russian forces and reinforces the need for a war crimes investigation for flagrant violations of the Geneva Conventions.
The Washington Post has not independently verified the video. Who made and posted it — when, where and under what circumstances — remains unclear. The footage was shared widely among pro-Kremlin Telegram accounts on Monday, including an account linked to Task Force Rusich, a unit fighting with the mercenary group Wagner in Ukraine described as a “neo-Nazi paramilitary group” by the U.S. Treasury.
In a video posted to his Telegram account late on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukrainians to repeat the man’s patriotic final words: “Slavi Ukraini,” which means “glory to Ukraine.”
“I want us all together, in unity, to respond to his words: ‘Glory to the hero! Glory to heroes! Glory to Ukraine!’” Zelensky said. “We will find the killers.”
“Killing a prisoner of war is yet another [Russian] war crime,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, tweeted the same day.
On Tuesday, a Ukrainian military unit said they had identified the man killed as one of their own: Tymofiy Shadura, 40, who was believed to have been captured by Russian forces near Vuhledar in Donetsk last month.
A woman identified as Shadura’s sister told the BBC that her brother appeared to be the man in the video.
“My brother would certainly be capable of standing up to the Russians like that,” the woman said, as reported by the BBC.
So far, Russian officials have not made an official response. But in a follow-up post on Telegram Tuesday, the paramilitary group Rusich mocked Russians who criticized the video, saying that it was “normal” and the Russian military was “doing what it should.”
“To defeat the enemy – you need to kill the enemy!” the group wrote.
Russia, as well as Ukraine, is among nearly 200 countries that are party to the Third Geneva Convention, which spells out the rights of Prisoners of War. The convention calls for prisoners captured during a conflict to be treated “humanely.” Their execution is clearly forbidden.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter that the video was further proof that the war was “genocidal” and called on the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation. “Perpetrators must face justice,” Kuleba wrote.
Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, wrote on Telegram that Ukraine’s security service would also be investigating the killing as a criminal case under domestic laws.
Numerous war crimes allegations have been recorded since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year. Last month, Kostin said that Ukraine had registered more than 65,000 war crimes committed by Russian forces since the conflict began.
Ukrainian forces have also been accused of breaching the Geneva Conventions, including by publishing footage of prisoners of war at the beginning of the conflict.
Last year, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna promised to launch an investigation into footage that appeared to show the country’s forces killed Russian soldiers who had surrendered.
On Tuesday, the State Department said it was aware of the video.
“The harrowing imagery of this unarmed Ukrainian being executed after making the simple statement of ‘Glory to Ukraine’ is just breathtaking in terms of its barbarity,” spokesman Ned Price said at a briefing. “Russia, we believe, should be ashamed of itself,” he said. “It is flouting the basic rules of war, basic humanity, basic decency… when its forces take part in atrocities like this.”
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