Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to “find the murderers” involved in a video that he said showed the execution of a Ukrainian soldier by Russian troops, as officials in Kyiv roundly condemned the incident as a war crime.
The video shows an unarmed troop allegedly in Russian captivity wearing Ukrainian combat fatigues and smoking a cigarette, near what appears to be a fighting position.
The man is then shown pulling the cigarette from his mouth, blowing out the smoke and saying, “Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine),” before being executed, with fighters off camera firing several shots at him.
The Ukrainian Army’s 30th Mechanized Brigade named the soldier on Tuesday as Tymofii Mykolayovych Shadura.
The brigade said in a Facebook post that Shadura was part of the contingent and had been missing since Feb. 3 after fighting near the eastern city of Bakhmut, as the battle for control of the eastern Donetsk region intensifies.
“Currently, the body of our serviceman is on the temporarily occupied territory. The final confirmation of his identity will be established after the body is returned and the relevant examinations are conducted,” the brigade’s post added.
Zelensky denounced the video and said it shows “how the occupiers brutally killed a warrior.”
“Today, a video has been released showing how the occupiers brutally killed a warrior who bravely said to their faces: ‘Glory to Ukraine,’” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Monday. “I want us all to respond to his words in unity: ‘Glory to the hero. Glory to heroes. Glory to Ukraine.’”
“We will find the murderers,” he added.
CNN has not been able to independently verify who the executed soldier is, where he was shot, and who shot him. CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian defense ministry to get further details on the incident, and to the Russian defense ministry for a response. Russia has consistently denied accusations that its soldiers have committed war crimes during its invasion, despite evidence to the contrary.
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