Ukraine: Soldier ‘executed by Russians’ after saying ‘Glory to Ukraine’ is identified

Ukraine says it has identified a soldier filmed being shot dead in a viral video that sparked outrage and encouraged officials to demand an investigation, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky vowing to find the “killers.”

The footage, which circulated widely on social media, shows what appears to be a detained Ukrainian fighter standing in a shallow trench, smoking. Moments after saying ‘Glory to Ukraine’, he is shot and falls to the ground.

The phrase uttered by the alleged detained Ukrainian soldier was trending on social media on Monday. kyiv officials blamed Russian forces and called for justice.

“According to preliminary information, the deceased is a serviceman from the 30th separate mechanized brigade, Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura,” the brigade’s Facebook post said. He was the father of five children, the reports say.

‘The command of the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the Hero’s brothers express their most sincere condolences to his family and friends. Revenge for our Hero will be inevitable. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! he said.

Shadura had been missing since February 3 amid fighting near the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, she said. “Final confirmation of her identity can be established after she returns her body to herself,” she added.

The 41-year-old man is believed to be from the village of Mala Derevychka, Zhytomyr region.

kyiv said the remains of the dead soldier were located in territory currently controlled by Russian forces. Bakhmut is in eastern Ukraine

AFP could not independently verify where or when the footage was filmed or whether it showed, as suggested by Ukrainian officials and social media users, a Ukrainian prisoner of war.

In an address to the nation on Monday, Zelensky said the video showed Russian forces “brutally murdering” a Ukrainian serviceman.

“We will find the murderers,” he promised.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba earlier asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the images.

Journalist Vasily Krutchak wrote on Facebook that the man’s sister strongly believes that her brother was the man gunned down in the genocidal execution.

“I just got off the phone with Timofey’s sister, Olga,” he said.

“She said she was 90 percent sure the man who was shot is her brother.”

Later, the sister told the BBC’s Ukrainian service that she was 100% sure.

‘This is my brother. It’s his eyes, his voice and the way he smoked a cigarette,” she said, according to producer Sofia Kochmar-Tymoshenko.

“My brother would certainly be able to deal with the Russians that way,” he told the British broadcaster. “He never hid the truth in his life and he certainly wouldn’t in front of the enemy.”

Later, he published on social networks: “Six family members are sure that they are his brother and his son.”

A final identity cannot be established until Russia allows the repatriation of the bullet-riddled corpse, if ever.

The phrase ‘Glory to Ukraine’ and the response ‘Heroyam Slava’, or ‘Glory to the heroes’, has been a hallmark of post-Soviet Ukraine, but it has acquired special meaning as a common greeting in public life from the very beginning. from the war.

MailOnline was unable to immediately verify the authenticity, date or location of the video. Russia’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a question on the matter when contacted by the Reuters news agency.

The general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine called the shooting of an unarmed prisoner “a cynical and shameless disregard for the norms of international humanitarian law and the customs of war.” This is what worthless assassins do, not warriors.

“The Russian occupiers have once again shown that their main goal in Ukraine is the brutal extermination of the Ukrainians.”

A lawyer who was injured in battle last year said he was raising money to reward anyone who identified those responsible. He personally pledged $1,000.

Ukrainian authorities did not say where or when the shooting occurred.

Within hours, #GloryToUkraine became one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter.

Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said Ukraine’s security service had registered the shooting as a criminal case under a part of the criminal code covering violations of the laws and customs of war.

In the gruesome footage, the lone man is seen smoking and saying “Glory to Uklraine” before he is shot dead. He has been hailed as a martyr in his homeland.

An off-camera voice is heard saying ‘You’re an ab***’. He dies, bitch,’ and then he’s riddled with bullets. His body falls to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, insisted: ‘There will be retribution for every such war crime. No one can hide. We will find everyone.

Moscow and kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of killing prisoners in the year since Russia invaded Ukraine.

There are also video footage of the Wagner Russian Private Military Company brutally killing deserters, and reports of them executing their own troops.

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

Speaking in November last year, a senior US official said that the actions of Russian soldiers could even implicate senior officials in war crimes.

US Ambassador General for Global Criminal Justice Beth Van Schaack told reporters there was strong evidence that Russian abuses in Ukraine were not random.

There is growing evidence that the Russian invasion of Ukraine “has been accompanied by systemic war crimes committed in all regions where Russian forces have been deployed,” he said.

Evidence from the liberated areas indicates ‘deliberate, indiscriminate and disproportionate’ attacks against the civilian population, custody abuses of civilians and prisoners of war, forcible transfer or leaking of Ukrainian citizens, including children, to Russia, and execution-like killings and sexual violence,’ she told reporters.

“When we are seeing such systemic acts, including the creation of a vast leak network, it is very difficult to imagine how these crimes could be committed without accountability down the entire chain of command,” he said.