Ukrainian officials opened a war crimes investigation on Wednesday, and President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded world leaders respond, after a video emerged online that appeared to show a Russian soldier beheading a Ukrainian prisoner.
The New York Times has not confirmed the origin or authenticity of the video, or when and where it was filmed. It circulated on Russian social media channels this week and was later shared more broadly on Twitter and Ukrainian channels, drawing a furious response from Kyiv. The United Nations mission monitoring human rights in Ukraine said it was “appalled” by the videos and called for an investigation.
Ukraine’s state security service said it had begun an investigation into the “brutal murder of a Ukrainian prisoner of war,” while the country’s foreign ministry urged the International Criminal Court to “immediately” do the same.
Mr. Zelensky said there would be “legal responsibility” for everything and urged leaders to react to the video.
“There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video message posted on the Telegram messaging app, without placing direct blame for the killing. “No one will understand if the leaders don’t react,” he added. “Action is required now.”
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, called the video “terrible,” but questioned its credibility.
“In the world of fakes that we live in, it first needs to be checked whether the video is authentic,” Mr. Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, adding that it also must be determined which side committed the act.
The U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine said in a statement on Wednesday that “regrettably, this is not an isolated incident.” It added that in its recent reports, the mission has “documented a number of serious violations of international humanitarian law, including those committed against prisoners of war.”
Russian and Ukrainian forces have both been accused of war crimes since Moscow ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, though the number and scale of reported Russian crimes far exceed the accusations against Ukraine. Evidence of atrocities by Russian forces has fueled Ukrainian outrage as well as a determination to bring perpetrators to justice either in Ukrainian courts or before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The video that emerged online this week appears to show a Russian soldier beheading a man in Ukrainian military uniform, watched by a small group of other people in Russian uniform who are speaking Russian. It was filmed in a wooded area or forest and the leaves are green, suggesting that the incident may have taken place before the onset of winter. The video circulated on Russian Telegram channels.
A separate video being circulated online also appears to show two headless Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle.
Last month, another video of an apparent execution of a Ukrainian soldier emerged online. Mr. Zelensky honored the soldier, who appeared to say “Glory to Ukraine” moments before his death.
Moscow also has previously accused Ukraine of killing prisoners of war.
The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for war crimes, saying he bore criminal responsibility for the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.
Yurii Shyvala and Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting.
