Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed Russian “beasts” on Wednesday, after a video purportedly showing the decapitation of a Ukrainian prisoner of war leaked on social media.
“There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill. We will not forget anything, and we will not forgive murderers.” Zelensky said in a social media message, vowing to bring justice to his war-torn country after the video.
Two videos released last week
Two videos claiming to show beheaded Ukrainian soldiers have surfaced on social media in the last week.
The videos appear to be of separate events; one may have been shot lately. While the other, based on the amount of foliage on the ground. Appears to have been shot over the summer.
The first video, which was posted to a pro-Russian social media site on April 8. Further purports to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian troops lying on the ground near to a wrecked military vehicle. It was allegedly filmed by Russian mercenaries from the Wagner organization.
A voice can be heard behind the camera in the video, the sound altered to prevent the speaker from being identified.
“They killed them,” the voice adds, apparently alluding to the victims on the ground. Someone approached them. They approached them and severed their heads.”
The dead soldiers’ hands looked to have been severed as well.
According to Russian social media sites, the video was recorded in Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Which has some of the bloodiest combat in the battle for months. With Wagner forces heavily involved.
Because of the amount of plant life on the ground, the second video, which was posted on Twitter and is extremely obscured, appears to have been shot during the summer. It purports to show a Russian fighter severing the head of a Ukrainian soldier with a knife. A voice at the start of the video suggests that the victim was still alive when the attack began.
Andriy Yermak, a prominent advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted shortly after the tapes surfaced, “There will be accountability for everything.” Moreover, the message was an obvious allusion to “another execution video published by Russians,” according to an official Ukrainian government Telegram channel.