Russia, Ukraine condemn video circulating on social media showing beheading of prisoner

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russian and Ukrainian officials on Wednesday condemned a video circulated on social media networks showing a soldier with a Ukrainian arm patch being beheaded.

“There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill. This video. ... The execution of a Ukrainian captive. … The world must see it. This is a video of Russia as it is. What kind of creatures they are,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement.

Zelenskyy claimed that the video of the beheading is Russia’s attempt to make such events a “new norm” and that these are “not an accident.”

“Everyone must react. Every leader. Don't expect it to be forgotten. That time will pass. We are not going to forget anything,” Zelenskyy said, further expressing that there will be “legal responsibility” for everything and that Russia’s defeat is “necessary.”

Underlining that no one will understand how critical the situation is if world leaders do not react or act on the video, Zelenskyy further said Ukraine meanwhile must focus on the frontline “as much as possible.”

In a separate statement on Twitter, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba labeled the video as “horrific” and criticized Russia based on its rotating chairmanship in the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the month of April.

“A horrific video of Russian troops decapitating a Ukrainian prisoner of war is circulating online. It’s absurd that Russia, which is worse than ISIS (Daesh terror group), is presiding over the UNSC. Russian terrorists must be kicked out of Ukraine and the UN and be held accountable for their crimes,” Kuleba said.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, reiterated Kuleba’s comments in a statement on Telegram saying that Russia should not be in the UN Security Council.

Meanwhile, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement on Telegram that any attempts to find a compromise with Russia must be “strictly stopped” and that Moscow must be isolated from the rest of the world.

“None of Russia's actions demoralize Ukrainians, because we have no other way but to achieve victory. To find and punish everyone. This is only an incentive to work more intensively, contribute more and become a lawyer for Ukraine in the parliament or behind the podium in every corner of the planet,” Podolyak said.

Elsewhere, the Kremlin said the authenticity of the video must be checked before arriving at any conclusions.

"First, you need to check the authenticity of these terrible shots. Of course, these are terrible shots," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a press briefing in Moscow.

According to Peskov, after checking the authenticity, then they can begin to check whether the contents of the video are true or not, whether this took place, and if it did, then “where and by whom."

“First of all, in the world of fakes in which we live, it is necessary to check the authenticity of this shooting,” Peskov further reiterated.

Separately, head of the Wagner paramilitary group Yevgeny Prigozhin denied the involvement of its forces in the video and that the video was recorded near the city of Bakhmut.

“I have watched this video. It’s bad when people’s heads are cut off, but I haven’t found anywhere that this is happening near Bakhmut and that Wagner PMC fighters are participating in the execution,” Prigozhin said.