Ukraine Vows to Identify Killers of Unarmed Soldier After Graphic Video Posted Online

Ukrainian officials have vowed to hunt down Russian troops who apparently shot dead an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war, after graphic footage emerged on social media.

“We will find the murderers,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement late on Monday.

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence identified the soldier as Tymofiy Shadura, who had been missing since the 3rd of February.

“Ukraine will not forget the feat of each and every one whose lives gave freedom to Ukraine forever,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. 

The unverified video footage appears to show Shadura unarmed and smoking a cigarette. He says, “Glory to Ukraine,” just as Russian troops execute him with automatic weapons fire. 

BBC News spoke with a woman who said the victim is her brother, who served with the Ukrainian Army’s 30th Separate Mechanised Brigade.

The brigade said that Shadura’s body had not yet been recovered from the contested frontline outside the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. 

“My brother would certainly be capable of standing up to the Russians like that,” she told BBC News. “He never hid the truth in his life and certainly wouldn't do so in front of the enemy.”

The video of a cold-blooded execution of an unarmed man has outraged Ukranians. And the nation’s top prosecutor told the Kyiv Independent that a murder investigation would be conducted.

“Even war has rules. There are norms of international law that are systematically neglected by the criminal Russian regime,” Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said. “Sooner or later, the crime will be punished. All those involved will be held accountable.” 

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said via Twitter that the case would be referred to the International Criminal Court.  

Russia has faced repeated, credible, accusations of war crimes by Ukraine over the course of the year-long war, including hundreds of dead bodies found in mass graves in Ukrainian areas literated from Russian occupation this spring. Ukraine and international human rights groups have denounced the killings – including hundreds in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha – as war crimes under international law.