KYIV – Ukraine vowed on Tuesday to take revenge against Russia for an incident in a video that went viral, showing a captured soldier being riddled with bullets after uttering a pro-Ukrainian slogan.

The footage apparently shows a detained Ukrainian combatant standing in a shallow trench, smoking, and being shot to death from multiple automatic weapons after saying “Glory to Ukraine”.

Officials in Kyiv have blamed Russian forces and called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to probe the incident, a move that AFP could not independently verify.

The man’s last words were trending online in Ukraine this week, and the footage has spawned a new wartime meme in Ukraine celebrating the armed forces.

Many Ukrainians and social media users who support Kyiv against Russia’s invasion posted a picture of the killed man online.

“The deceased is a serviceman of the 30th Separate Mechanised Brigade – Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura,” the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday, citing initial findings.

The serviceman had been missing since Feb 3 amid fighting near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, and his identity would be confirmed when his remains were returned, the military added.

“Revenge for our hero’s killing is inevitable,” it added.

Brigade spokesman Anatoliy Yavorsky said the serviceman hailed from the western region of Zhytomyr and was mobilised last December.

Kyiv has said his remains were still in territory held by Russian forces.

Another soldier?

Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov, however, identified the man seen in the video as 42-year-old Oleksandr Matsiyevsky from the northern city of Nizhyn.

Mr Butusov posted a picture on Facebook of Mr Matsiyevsky, who bore a resemblance to the Ukrainian soldier in the footage.

The prominent reporter said Mr Matsiyevsky, who had a 19-year-old son, went to the front voluntarily. He was buried in Nizhyn in February, he added.

AFP could not independently determine the origins of the footage or whether it showed a Ukrainian serviceman.

The head of the Wagner mercenary group, which has spearheaded Russia’s assault on Bakhmut, said there was no evidence to link his fighters to the killing.

But Mr Yevgeny Prigozhin said that if details emerged linking his group to the incident, then “we will certainly look into it in detail”.

In an address to the nation on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the video showed Russian forces “brutally killing” a Ukrainian serviceman.

“We will find the murderers,” he vowed.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called for the ICC to probe the incident shown in the footage.

Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly accused each other of killing prisoners in the year since Russia invaded Ukraine. AFP