Kyiv compares Russia to Islamic State after beheading video

After a video leaked online showing alleged Russian soldiers executing a Ukrainian captive with a knife, Ukraine called on the International Criminal Court to investigate.

The social media video of a uniformed man beheading a man wearing a Ukrainian soldier’s yellow arm band was unverified by Reuters.

The Kremlin called the footage “terrible” but demanded verification. Moscow denies its forces commit war crimes.

“No one can overlook how easily these creatures kill,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated in a video message.

Everything will be liable. Terror must be defeated.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba tweeted: “A terrible video of Russian military decapitating a Ukrainian prisoner of war is spreading online.

“It’s insane that Russia, which is worse than ISIS, is presiding over the UNSC,” he added of the U.N. Security Council, where Russia assumed the rotating leadership this month.

“Russian terrorists must leave Ukraine and the UN and face justice.”

When they ruled Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2017, Islamic State militants released recordings of hostage beheadings.
At a briefing in Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “First of all, in the world of fakes that we live in, we need to check the reality of this footage.”

“Then it may be a pretext to verify whether this is genuine, whether it happened, and where and by whom,” Peskov added.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry urged the ICC to “quickly probe yet another tragedy of the Russian military”.

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar advised web users not to identify the soldier until law enforcement does. She encouraged people to cease posting the footage online.

“Remember, the enemy wants to frighten us. “Wants to weaken us,” he stated.

The video’s war crime was investigated by Ukraine’s domestic security agency.

“Yesterday, a video appeared on the Internet showing how the Russian occupiers are exhibiting their barbaric character – viciously torturing a Ukrainian prisoner and cutting off his head,” the SBU stated on Telegram.

The U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine in Geneva condemned “especially gruesome” social media footage.

It also showed mutilated Ukrainian prisoners of battle.

“Regrettably,” it said. “The new incidents must be properly investigated and the offenders held accountable.”