The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has appealed to international leaders after the video released on social media showing Russian soldiers beheading two Ukrainian soldiers.
"There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill. This is a video of Russia as it is. This is not an accident. This is not an episode. It has happened thousands of times. All they must react. The defeat of terror is necessary," Zelensky argues on social media.
A circulating video appears to show the decapitated corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle.
A voice says, "They killed them. Someone approached them. They went to them and cut off their heads."
Zelensky's post on the video of beheaded Ukrainian servicemen
The Kremlin replied immediately.
If the video with "horrifying images" of the beheading of a Ukrainian soldier by Russian military was true, "there may be an investigation. We need to verify the images," said spokesman Dmitri Peskov, referring to a soldier as Zelensky speaks of two decapitated soldiers.
Commenting on the news, Kiev's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba compared Russia to the Islamic State.
"A horrible video of Russian troops is circulating online. It is absurd that Russia, which is worse than the Islamic State, presides over the UN Security Council," he denounced, referring to the rotating presidency assumed by Moscow this month.
"Russian terrorists must be expelled from Ukraine and the United Nations and held accountable for their crimes," added Kuleba.
The UN human rights mission in Ukraine said it was "horrified" by a video that appears to show a Russian soldier beheading a Ukrainian prisoner with a knife.
He also referred to a second video showing "mutilated bodies, apparently of Ukrainian POWs", and called for "these incidents to be properly investigated and those responsible held to account".
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