Ukraine has opened an investigation into the brutal execution of a soldier and Zelensky has promised to find those responsible

The Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced the opening of a criminal investigation on what he describes as “brutal and shameless shooting of an unarmed personin a viral video showing the execution of a Ukrainian soldier, and accused Russia of ignoring the laws of war.

The 12-second footage shared widely on Twitter shows an apparently unarmed man, dressed in a uniform and wearing a Ukrainian flag badge on his arm, standing and smoking in a wooded area. The man says:Glory to Ukraine”.

Several shots are heard from an unseen shooter(s), and the man falls to the ground as the bullets appear to hit his body. A voice is heard saying “Die, bitch” in Russian.

The video, whose authenticity, date or location could not be verified, was denounced by Ukrainian leaders and sparked repudiation on the networks.

President Volodimir Zelenskiy, simply noting that the video emerged on Monday, said it showed Russian occupiers brutally killing a soldier and the killers would be found.

“Video footage surfaced (showing) how the occupiers brutally killed the soldier, who had bravely said in their eyes, ‘Glory to Ukraine. I want us all to be united in responding to his words: Glory to the hero! Glory to the heroes! Glory to Ukraine! And we will find the murderers,” he said in his daily message.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said the man was a Ukrainian prisoner of war and the incident was part of a “deliberate policy of terror” by Russia. “Killing a captive is the latest Russian war crime,” Yermak wrote in a tweet. “For every such war crime, there will be retaliation.”

For its part, the Facebook page of the 30 brigade Ukrainian indicated that he would have belonged to their ranks.

“According to preliminary data, the dead man is a soldier of the 30th Separate Mechanical Brigade Timofey Mykolajovich Shadura. Timothy Shadura has been considered missing since February 3, 2023 after fighting in the city district of Bakhmut,” they said.

As they added, the body of the soldier remains in occupied territory and confirmation of the identification will be made when the body is returned and analyzed.

Ukrainian and Western authorities say there is evidence of thousands of war crimes committed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February 2022. Russia has repeatedly denied that its forces committed atrocities or attacked civilians in Ukraine .

Kostin said on his Telegram channel that Ukraine’s security services had registered the shooting as a criminal case under part of the country’s criminal code that covers violations of the laws and customs of war.

“Even war has its own laws,” he said, adding that prosecutors in his office would take up the case. “There are norms of international law that the Russian criminal regime systematically ignores. But sooner or later there will be a punishment.”

(With information from Reuters)

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