By Caroline Radnofsky, Henry Austin and Dusa Gambrill —
NBC News
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday condemned a video circulating online in which, according to his security services, a Ukrainian prisoner of war is beheaded by "Russian occupiers."
"This is something that no one in the world can ignore," Zelenskyy said on the Telegram social network, "we are not going to forget anything at all, [...] they will respond judicially for everything that has happened."
The video, which was reviewed by NBC News, shows a man saying over and over "this hurts" while another wields a small knife and appears to saw his throat.
An image from the video.Telegram
Another man says in Russian to the one with the knife: “What's wrong?
Have you never beheaded someone before?
Do it do it".
Once he is finished beheading him, the man shows the dead man's head to the camera.
What appears to be a Ukrainian identification document can be seen on the floor next to the victim's body.
One of the attackers holds in the air a bulletproof vest with the Ukrainian coat of arms and another with a skull.
NBC News could not independently verify the identities of the people in the video, their location or the date of filming.
Zelenskyy described the victim as
a Ukrainian prisoner.
The Ukrainian Security Service said the video shows "Russian occupiers [...] severely torturing a Ukrainian prisoner and cutting off his head."
NBC News could not verify it.
Ukraine said it had opened a war crimes investigation after spotting the video online on Tuesday.
Asked about it, the spokesman for the Russian regime, Dmitry Peskov, described it as "
horrendous
".
But "we live in a world of counterfeits, you need to verify authenticity," he added.
More than 30 Ukrainian children who had been taken to Russia are reunited with their families
April 9, 202300:27
Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, questioned on Telegram that Russia presides over the United Nations Security Council.
It is a position that rotates every month among its 15 members, in alphabetical order;
Russia took it over in April.
The International Criminal Court, based in The Hague (Netherlands) and not related to the UN, issued an arrest warrant in March for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, accusing him of war crimes for kidnapping hundreds of Ukrainian children. and take them to Russia.
Russia, for its part, has accused Ukraine of war crimes;
in November she said that Ukrainian soldiers have executed at least 10 Russian prisoners, although she did not provide any proof of this.
One of the men lifts Ukrainian armor into the air in video released Tuesday of an alleged beheading.Telegram
The video released Tuesday is the second in a little over a month to appear to show an execution.
In March, highly graphic images circulated on social media that Ukraine claimed show Russian forces killing a Ukrainian prisoner of war.
The 12-second video shows a man wearing what appears to be a military camouflage uniform with a Ukrainian flag insignia, holding a cigarette in his mouth.
After he says in a very low voice “Slava Ukraini” (“Glory to Ukraine”), a shot is heard almost immediately.
You can't see who's shooting.
The man then collapses on the floor.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces said the man's name was Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura.
He was a member of the 30th mechanized brigade that went missing in early February in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian military said.
A soldier enters a house during the Russia-Ukraine war in the Ukrainian town of Bakhmut on March 30, 2023. Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of committing atrocities throughout the war and called for international action to hold them accountable.
More than 74,500 atrocities have been reported in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office said last month.
[A bombing in St. Petersburg kills a well-known Russian nationalist blogger]
Several regions are being investigated, including the city of Mariupol, where mass graves were found, and the towns of Bucha and Izyum, where hundreds of tortured bodies were found.
US Vice President Kamala Harris said speaking at a Security Conference in Munich last week that Russia has committed "crimes against humanity" in the war against Ukraine, adding that "justice must be served."
