The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it has initiated a preliminary investigation of a video showing the decapitation of a presumed Ukrainian prisoner of war.
The press release claims that employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office found a video online showing an “unknown person in camouflage uniform violently attacking an unidentified serviceman with a knife, thereby causing his death”.
“In order to assess the credibility of the aforementioned data and take appropriate action, [the video] has been sent to the investigative authorities for verification. The progress and results of the probe have been placed under control of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office”, it said.
The video in question started circulating online on the night of April 12. It shows people in military uniforms with white stripes beheading a man in uniform with Ukrainian insignia.
The person on the ground shouts that he is “in pain” while another one murders him with a knife. A man can be heard speaking off-camera over the radio, giving out commands: “Send it to Kyiv <…> We are working, brothers, working <…> cut it off, <…> break the spine <…> have you never cut off a head before.” The faces of the participants are covered by masks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the video. “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. Don’t expect it will be forgotten. That time will pass. We are not going to forget anything. Neither are we going to forgive the murderers. There will be legal responsibility for everything”, he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “This is certainly horrible footage, but first we need to check its authenticity. That might then prompt an investigation into whether that really happened and, if it did, then where, and who perpetrated it”.
