Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday condemned what he called Russian "monsters" after a video was posted on social media showing the beheading of a man believed to be a Ukrainian prisoner of war, while calling on the Kremlin to "verify the authenticity of the recording."
The video was posted on Instagram and shows a Russian soldier beheading a Ukrainian captive with a knife.
President Zelenskiy said in a video posted on Instagram: "How easily are these people killed? The whole world should watch this video of the execution of a Ukrainian prisoner of war," he said, stressing that "this video shows Russia for what it is."
Zelensky explained that Ukrainians should focus on the front and on expelling the occupiers from the country. The main tasks now, he said, are to "crush the occupier, sentence the murderers and prosecute the bad guys".
The execution of a Ukrainian captive...
This is a video of Russia as it is. This is a video of 🇷🇺 trying to make just that the new norm.
Everyone must react. Every leader. Don't expect it to be forgotten.
We are not going to forget anything. The defeat of 🇷🇺 terror is necessary. pic.twitter.com/H8Or6HJnYW
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 12, 2023
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also called on the International Criminal Court to urgently consider the execution of a Ukrainian soldier by Russian forces.
Ukrainian intelligence is currently investigating the video, and the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasyl Malyuk said: "We will find these savages ... If necessary, we will find them wherever they are, underground or from the grave."
Moscow response
But the Kremlin responded by calling for the video to be "verified", with Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters: "These are of course horrific images," adding: "In the world of fakes we live in, we must verify the authenticity of this video."
The UN human rights mission in Ukraine said it was "horrified" after reviewing the video, but cited another video showing "apparently mutilated bodies of Ukrainian prisoners of war", calling for "these incidents to be effectively investigated and the perpetrators held accountable".
In Brussels, a spokeswoman for the European foreign policy chief said on Wednesday the EU would hold accountable "all perpetrators of war crimes and their accomplices" in Ukraine.
Spokeswoman Nabila Masrali told a news conference in Brussels that the EU "has no information on the authenticity of the video", but "if confirmed, it is yet another stark reminder of the inhuman nature of Russian aggression".