Ukrainian officials have lashed out against Moscow after a video showed one of the country’s soldiers, allegedly in Russian captivity, being executed seemingly by Russian soldiers.
The video shows an unarmed soldier in Ukrainian combat fatigues smoking a cigarette near what appears to be a fighting position. The man is then shown pulling the cigarette from his mouth, blowing out the smoke and can be heard saying “Slava Ukraini” (Glory to Ukraine), before fighters off camera fire several shots at him.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba blamed Russia and said it was additional “proof” that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “genocidal.”
“It is imperative that [Prosecutor] Karim Khan QC launches an immediate [International Criminal Court] investigation into this heinous war crime,” he tweeted on Monday. “Perpetrators must face justice.”
The Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak also said the incident was a “war crime.”
“Those [war crimes] are an element of a [methodical] policy of terror, which is whitewashed by Kremlin propaganda with its myths about “Nazis,” There will be punishment for every such war crime,” Yermak tweeted Monday. “No one will dodge justice. We’ll find them all.”
The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said he shared the video with international partners as “evidence of yet another Russian war crime.”
“The execution of a captured Ukrainian soldier is a violation of the Geneva Conventions. It is a manifestation of rascality and ignobility,” Lubinets wrote on Telegram.
CNN has not been able to independently verify who the executed POW is, where he was shot, or who shot him.