SBU vow to find Russians behind brutal beheading murder of Ukrainian PoW
СБУ відреагувала на відео, на якому російські окупанти катують українського полоненого (Photo:www.facebook.com/MinistryofDefence.UA)
Ukraine’s SBU security service has vowed to track down and punish the Russian soldiers seen in a horrifying video beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife while he was still alive.
The Russian military tortured the Ukrainian prisoner before killing him, the SBU said in a message posted on Telegram on April 12.
"Yesterday, a video was posted online demonstrating the Russian occupiers showing their bestiality by brutally torturing a Ukrainian prisoner and cutting off his head," the SBU said in the statement.
The service said it had launched a pre-trial investigation into this war crime under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
"We will find these inhuman people," said SBU Head Vasyl Malyuk.
“If necessary, we will get them wherever they are: from underground or from the other world. But they will definitely be punished for their actions.”
The shocking video of the brutal murder appeared in Russian pro-war Telegram channels on the evening of April 11. It was also posted on Twitter by Ukrainian blogger and volunteer Igor Lachenkov.
After the video began to spread on social media, the head of the President’s Office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram that "there will be an answer and responsibility for what is happening."
This is not the first such case. On March 6, a video was posted online showing the Russian military shooting an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner. The Russians pointed the camera at the prisoner, he said "Glory to Ukraine," after which one of the Russian soldiers immediately shot him in the head and then several times in the body.
Soon it was revealed that the executed Ukrainian defender was a sniper of the 163rd battalion of the 119th Separate Brigade of Chernihiv Oblast, Oleksandr Ihorovych Matsiyevskyi.
On March 12, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded Matsiyevskyi the title of Hero of Ukraine. The video of Matsievskyi's execution was preceded by other war crimes committed by Russians against Ukrainian prisoners of war that were captured on camera.
In July 2022, a video of brutal torture of a Ukrainian prisoner was posted online. In it, Russian soldiers press a Ukrainian soldier to the ground and use something that looks like a clerical knife to cut off his genitals, and then hold them up to the camera.
The largest such crime committed by the aggressor state was the deliberate murder of Ukrainian prisoners, including Azovstal defenders, on the premises of the colony in occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast, in July 2022. At the time, under the pretext of "shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces," the Russians set off an explosion in the room where the prisoners were held. About 50 Ukrainians were killed.
Russia never provided a complete list of the dead and did not allow either the international Red Cross mission or the Ukrainian ombudsperson to visit the site of the tragedy.
In addition, there are many cases of torture by starvation, abuse and psychological pressure against Ukrainian soldiers in Russian captivity.
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