Zelensky Calls On World To Act Over Beheading Footage

Moscow says the authenticity of a video that shows Russian soldiers decapitating a Ukrainian PoW needs to be checked

- C H R I S S T E V E N S O N

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has urged world leaders to act after the emergence of footage appearing to show Russian soldiers beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war. “How easily these beasts kill. We are not going to forget anything.

Neither are we going to forgive the murderers,” Mr Zelensky said of the video, which has not been verified by The Independent, but is circulating online. “There will be legal responsibility for everything. The defeat of terror is necessary.”

It is unclear when or where the video was shot but the captive is wearing the yellow arm band used by Ukrainian soldiers. A second video appears to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers next to a destroyed military vehicle.

Since Russia’s forces invaded Ukraine more than a year ago, they have been accused of committing widespread abuses and alleged war crimes. The International Criminal Court has also issued an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin for war crimes. Reporting from The Independent has highlighted mass graves, and locals in towns like Bucha, outside Kyiv, have spoken of execution sites during periods of Russian occupation. Mr Zelensky said the apparent execution was part of this pattern.

“There are no people for them. A son, a brother, a husband, someone’s child. This is a video of Russia just trying to make that the new norm. Such a habit of destroying life,” he said. “This is not an accident. This is not an episode. This was the case earlier. This was the case in Bucha. Thousands of times. Everyone must react. Every leader.”