The mother of a decorated Ukrainian POW who was murdered by his Russian captors has revealed the “soul-crushing” heartbreak as she identified her son in a video showing his execution.
Praskovya Demchuk, 67, spoke of her grief and horror at the footage of Russians shooting her son as he declared “glory to Ukraine” to his captors.
She said her grandson, the soldier’s child, was hysterical and screamed when he identified “our father” in the video.
The cold-blooded shooting of electrician Oleksandr ‘Sasha’ Matsiyevsky, 42, by Russian invaders is now the subject of a war crimes investigation.
Matsiyevsky’s body was returned to Ukraine after he was killed after losing contact with his comrades on December 30.
Identified as the POW standing upright, seen standing in a shallow trench, smoking and “declaring glory to Ukraine” when shot, Matsiyevsky has been posthumously honored with the country’s highest title, the Hero of Ukraine.
Praskovya Demchuk, 67, mother of Oleksandr Sasha’ Matsiyevsky reveals her agony as she watches footage of her Hero PoW son being shot in cold blood for saying “Glory to Ukraine.”
Zelensky awarded prisoner-of-war electrician Oleksandr Matsievsky, pictured, his country’s highest honor after being shot in cold blood by Russian assassins after declaring “Glory to Ukraine”
Matsiyevsky and four colleagues were reportedly engaged in combat with a larger Russian contingent near Soledar on December 30, 2022 when he was captured.
His comrades are still missing.
Matsiyevsky’s mother, Praskovya, identified her son through a video that appeared on social media on March 6, 2023.
The video shows the moment when the man identified as Matsiyevsky is shot multiple times by Russian captors.
He is seen smoking in a trench. Someone outside the shot says “film it.” The smoking man says ‘glory to Ukraine’ and is shot several times.
An earlier preliminary investigation by the army had suggested that another Ukrainian soldier, Timofiy Shadura, 41, who had been missing since early February, was the hero.
The SBU secret service subsequently identified Matsiyevsky’s body as the man in the video.
His mother had also identified his body – before it was known how he was killed.
‘It was in the evening. I opened my phone, Facebook, and I looked at Sasha [short for Oleksandr],” she told the German newspaper Bild, and Bild in Russian.
“This is the worst shot, this is a shooting. And I… I look and I understand, it’s my son.
And I yelled “Sasha!” It was a shock – “Sasha!”…
‘I keep looking at it. I stare… “Sasha! I look, it’s Sasha, it’s my Sasha.”
“And I call Yulia, my daughter-in-law. I sent this to her on Viber. She looked and said, “yes that’s our Sasha”.
‘Mishka [his son] also confirmed it. That’s our father’ – he was hysterical. That’s our daddy, grandma it’s daddy. The way he smokes, the way he stands.
“It was a terrible tantrum, it was… it was crushing,” she said.
“He cried, cried loudly, just cried, sobbed into the phone….
‘[Sasha] had no intention of surrendering, he could not take revenge on them. He didn’t have a submachine gun, he didn’t have a bulletproof vest, he was like he was naked, you know?…
These were the last minutes of his life. What else could he do? “Honor to Ukraine!”‘
Praskovya Demchuk told how she had “loved” Russia during the period when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
Matsiyevsky was posthumously awarded the highest honor for his service, the Hero of Ukraine
“I have been to Russia many times… my son worked in Russia… It is very painful that people, Russian people, have done this.
“And I don’t know how much grief they brought to our people, so many children were left without parents, without father.
‘It is a great sadness. I don’t know if we can forgive or not…
“They hit cities, houses where peaceful people sleep, and in an instant there’s nothing left.”
She told Suspilne media in Ukraine that the last time she saw her son, he “crossed the house himself and said goodbye.”
He said to her, “Mom, thank you for life.”
Oleksandr, an electrician before the war, was a fighter of the 163rd battalion of the 119th separate brigade of the territorial defense of the Chernihiv region.
Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, insisted: “There will be retribution for every war crime. No one can hide… We’ll find everyone.’
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba demanded that the International Criminal Court immediately launch an investigation into the images.
Praskovya Demchuck, 67, mother of Sasha Matsiyevsky, spoke of the moment she identified her son
Electrician Oleksandr Matsievskyi, 42, was identified as the man shot by Russian kidnappers in December in a video circulated online last week
Zelensky gives the highest credit to Oleksandr ‘Sasha’ Matsiyevsky in his nightly speech
President Zelensky said in his evening speech that he had awarded the soldier posthumously.
“Today I conferred on Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, a soldier, the title of Hero of Ukraine,” he said in his nightly address.
‘A man that all Ukrainians will know.
A man who will be remembered forever.
‘For his courage, for his confidence in Ukraine and for his ‘Glory to Ukraine!’
“Glory to the hero, glory to the heroes, glory to Ukraine.”