Investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have established that the Ukrainian serviceman who was shot dead after he said "Glory to Ukraine!" was a sniper of the 163rd Battalion of the 119th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade of Chernihiv Region, Oleksandr Ihorovych Matsiyevskyy.
His identity was finally confirmed after a set of investigative actions, which included communication with the relatives and comrades-in-arms of the deceased, as well as the processing of photo and video materials.
In addition, the SBU received the conclusion of a forensic portrait examination, which confirmed that the soldier in the video was Oleksandr Matsiyevskyy.
The SBU is currently working to identify the occupiers who committed this crime.
"We will do everything to ensure that these inhumans are punished," SBU head Vasyl Malyuk said.
Matsiyevskyy was called up for military service in March 2022. Since the end of December, he had been missing near the village of Krasna Hora in Donetsk Region.
As it was established, Matsiyevskyy was shot dead on 30 December 2022. His body was returned home in February 2023.
On 6 March, a video was posted on social media showing the Russian occupiers shooting an unarmed Ukrainian soldier. At first, a man in Ukrainian army uniform looks in the direction of the camera, when a male voice behind the camera says: "Take it off", referring to the soldier's chevron. The prisoner responds: "Glory to Ukraine." After that, he is shot.
Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets sent the video to our country's international partners and fellow ombudsmen.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that those responsible for the murder of an unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war must be brought to justice. He appealed to the International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan to immediately launch an ICC investigation into this heinous war crime.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also promised to find the hero's killers.