A Ukrainian soldier believed to have been executed by Russian troops has been named by reports as Timofiy Shadura.
In his final defiant moments, Shadura, 41, said ‘Slava Ukraini’ – glory to Ukraine – and dragged on his last cigarette.
In the background, men believed to be Russian soldiers shouted ‘you’re a bitch, die, bitch’ before shooting him dead.
The video has since been shared across social media, although it is not clear when it was filmed.
Kyiv said today it has identified the soldier as Shadura, a man from the Mala Derevychka village in Zhytomyr who has been missing since February 3.
Journalist Vasily Krutchak said on Facebook that the man’s sister believes it was her brother gunned down in the footage.
‘I just talked on the phone with Timofey’s sister, Olga,’ he said. ‘She said that she was that the man who was shot is her brother.’
It comes after a woman came forward claiming that the soldier in the video is his brother.
‘This is my brother. It’s his eyes, his voice and the way he smoked a cigarette,’ she told BBC News Ukrainian.
She also posted: ‘Six family members are sure it’s their brother and son.’
The 30th Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces, which has been fighting in Bakhmut and Dronivka, said the soldier was serving in the formation.
‘The body of our soldier is currently in a temporarily occupied territory,’ the formation said.
‘The final confirmation of the person will be established when the body is returned and appropriate examinations are conducted.
‘The team of the 30th Separate Mechanised Brigade and his hero brothers expresses their sincere condolences. Revenge will be inevitable.’
President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to avenge his death as the spectre of Russian war crimes once again rears its ugly head.
While Moscow has yet to publicly comment on the video, Zelensky has vowed to track down the soldier’s alleged killers.
He said in his evening address yesterday: ‘Today, a video appeared of the occupiers brutally killing a soldier, who bravely said to their faces: “Glory to Ukraine!”.’
‘I want us all to respond to these words together, in unity: “Glory to the hero! Glory to the heroes! Glory to Ukraine!”
‘We will find the murderers.’
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said it is ‘imperative’ that International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan probe the ‘heinous war crime’.
‘Horrific video of an unarmed Ukrainian POW executed by Russian forces merely for saying ‘Glory to Ukraine’. Another (piece of) proof this war is genocidal,’ he tweeted.
‘Perpetrators must face justice,’ Kuleba added.
Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff, said on Telegram that ‘war crimes are cultivated in Russia’ and whitewashed by their propaganda.
‘Killing a person taken to captivity is another example of this. It is also an example of their national insignificance and weakness,’ he said.
‘There will be a payback for every such war crime. No one will be able to hide from it.’
Ukrainian prosecutors have launched an investigation into the video – killing POWs violates international humanitarian law.
The country’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, accused Moscow of breaking the Geneva Conventions regarding POWs.
‘The shooting of a captured Ukrainian serviceman is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, a manifestation of baseness and meanness,’ he said in a statement tweeted by the Ukrainian parliament, Verkhovna Rada.
Thanking both those who are fighting on the frontline and the nation’s allies, Zelsenky added: ‘Eternal memory and honour to all those who gave lives for freedom for our people.
‘Eternal memory and honour to all Ukrainian heroes of different times who dreamed and fought for freedom for Ukraine.’
As early as March 2, only a few days after Russia’s war against Ukraine started, the ICC began investigating possible war crimes and other atrocities in the country.
An UN-appointed panel of legal experts found evidence that Russian soldiers have raped and tortured women and children in Ukraine.
The panel’s chairman, Erik Mose, told the UN Human Rights Council last September that the victims included children as young as four-years-old.
‘We were struck by the large number of executions in the areas that we visited,’ Mose said.
‘Prior detention, hands tied behind backs, gunshot wounds to the head and slit throats’, are the common themes of such killings.
The panel’s investigation added to a lengthy list of alleged atrocities being probed by Ukrainian and international investigators.
They include the wave of massacres in the commuter town of Bucha, just outside of Kyiv, and the mass grave site found in reclaimed Izyum.
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