Unspeakable horror. Since Tuesday, a video has been circulating on the Internet, showing an alleged Ukrainian prisoner of war being beheaded by a man in uniform. kyiv quickly denounced “a video of Russia as it is”, while Moscow announced that it wanted to examine the video to determine its authenticity. 20Minutes review this case.
What exactly does the video show?
In this video, which lasts one minute and forty, a man in uniform, who struggles on the ground, screaming “it hurts” in Ukrainian, has his throat slit with a knife by another man in military camouflage, his face masked. The screams stop after a few seconds, then we hear a third man, behind the camera, ordering in Russian the executioner to “cut off the head” of the soldier on the ground. “You have to put it in the bag and send it to the commander” adds the voice. The executioner finishes decapitating the man with his knife, then shows the head to the camera.
The two torturers also show their victim’s military vest, stamped with the Ukrainian trident. If AFP indicates that it is not able to verify where and when the video could have been shot, the Russian prosecutor’s office believes that the images seem to have been filmed “in the summer”, in 2022. The Ukrainian authorities are seeking to know the identity of the victim.
What were the international reactions?
“How easily these monsters kill. This video of the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war, the world must see it. It’s a video of Russia as it is, ”responded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video address posted on Instagram. The UN mission in kyiv said it was “horrified” by the images, and demanded the opening of an investigation to authenticate the video. The UN representation also refers to a second video showing the mutilated bodies of Ukrainian prisoners.
France, which “learned with horror” of the video, on Wednesday condemned “a barbaric act” and “an unbearable attack on human dignity”. For its part, the EU will demand “accountability from all perpetrators and accomplices of war crimes” in Ukraine, a spokeswoman for the head of European diplomacy said on Wednesday. According to an NGO and a deserter from the Wagner group, the executioners are part of the paramilitary group, which its leader Evguéni Prigojine has denied.
How is the Russian response not usual?
Already targeted at the beginning of March, after a video showing the alleged execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war by Russian soldiers, Moscow used to deny outright any involvement in ill-treatment, like also the executions of civilians in Boutcha. On several occasions, the Kremlin has even denounced manipulations and stagings on the part of kyiv to discredit Russia.
But on Wednesday, Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that the images were “horrific”, and that their “authenticity” needed to be established. The Russian prosecutor’s office said on Thursday that it had started examining the video. “In order to determine the authenticity of this content and draw the necessary (judicial) conclusions, (the video) has been transmitted to the investigative bodies for examination”, indicated the Moscow prosecutor’s office on its Telegram channel. . This decision is a preliminary step which may or may not lead to the opening of a criminal investigation.
