Ukrainian president Zelensky vows Revenge after ‘Russian Beasts’ Behead Ukrainian soldiers on video

Zelensky has vowed to bring those responsible to justice after harrowing videos emerged showing the alleged beheadings of Ukrainian soldiers.

Sickening videos have emerged online showing depraved Russian soldiers allegedly beheading Ukrainian prisoners of war and mounting their heads on a spike. Wagner Group thugs have been accused of further war crimes after the first video, which was posted to a pro-Russian social media channel on April 8, appears to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian soldiers lying on the ground next to a destroyed military vehicle.

A voice behind the camera can be heard speaking in Russian, saying: “(The armored vehicle) got f***** by a mine.”

Referring to the slain bodies on the ground, the person behind the camera laughs and adds: “They killed them. Someone came up to them.

“They came up to them and cut their heads off.”

Meanwhile, a second harrowing video emerged online on April 11, which purportedly showed a sick Russian soldier beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war using a knife.

The video circulating online appears to show a man in green fatigues wearing a yellow armband, typically donned by Ukrainian fighters.

He is heard screeching before another man in camouflage uses a knife to decapitate him.

A voice at the beginning of the video, thought to be filmed in the summer months due to the green foliage in the background, suggests the victim was still alive when the brutal murder began.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today condemned the alleged Russian killers as “beasts” as the nation launched an investigation into the gruesome footage.

He warned those responsible for the depraved acts would be held accountable.

Speaking in a video message, he said: “There is something that no one in the world can ignore: how easily these beasts kill.

“We are not going to forget anything. Neither are we going to forgive the murderers. There will be legal responsibility for everything. The defeat of terror is necessary.”

Reacting to the video, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described it as “terrible” but said Russia would need to “verify the authenticity” of the footage.

He added: “Of course, these are terrible shots. Then it may be a reason to check whether this is true or not, whether this took place and, if so, where and from which side.”

The battle-scarred eastern city has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the entire war, with the mercenary army founded by Vladimir Putin henchman Yevgeny Prigozhin accused of multiple atrocities.

A bulletin published by Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) this week warned: “Wagner forces are reportedly continuing to commit war crimes by beheading Ukrainian servicemen in Bakhmut.

“Russian social media users published footage purportedly showing the remains of a head belonging to a Ukrainian serviceman on a spike at an unspecified area in Bakhmut.”

The ISW added: “Social media users recalled similar instances of skulls mounted on spikes in Popasna, Luhansk Oblast, where Wagner troops operated over spring–summer of 2022.

“The Geneva Convention prohibits the mutilation and despoilment of dead bodies in war.”

In a video uploaded to Telegram this week, Prigozhin claimed his forces were in control of more than 80 percent of Bakhmut, which before the war had a population of 70,000.

He is seen showing on a map how his forces were encircling continuing the city, adding: “In Bakhmut, the larger part, more than 80 percent is now under our control, including the whole administrative centre, factories, warehouses, the administration of the city.”

Such is the brutality of Putin’s forces, and the Wagner Group in particular, Ukraine routinely refers to Russian troops as “orcs” in reference to the creatures in JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

Accusations of atrocities committed by Russian soldiers have become commonplace since Putin ordered his invasion on February 24, 2022.

Speaking earlier this month, Barrister Wayne Jordash KC drew attention to the Bucha massacre in a suburb of Kyiv hundreds of miles to the west, in which he says at least 450 people, including more than 40 children, were systematically murdered.

Mr Jordash, Managing Partner of Global Rights Compliance, which is supporting the investigation of war crimes by Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General, told Express.co.uk: “It’s just grim, totally grim. Within Bucha alone, you have over 40 kids killed.

“You have old people forced onto the ground and bullets in the back of their heads.

“There’s certainly an arguable case for genocide there, I would say, in relation to the targeting of the Ukrainians for no reason.

“It starts off as a security operation which is looking for anyone who’s a nationalist or pro-Ukrainian.”

He continued: “But of course, everybody in Bucha is pro-Ukrainian and so you get this security operation which just develops into this targeting of anyone, for the least suspicion.

“So cars are shot up just randomly full of people trying to leave, men and dragged out of their houses and shot, buses, which are just trying to leave with kids are shot.

“It’s really as unpleasant as I’ve seen in any conflict.”

Meanwhile, the Moscow-appointed leader of Crimea said today the region is on guard for what may be an impending Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Sergei Aksyonov told reporters that Russian forces in Crimea had built “modern, in-depth defences” and had “more than enough” troops and equipment to repel a possible Ukrainian assault after 13 months of war after Russia’s full-scale invasion.

He added: “We cannot underestimate the enemy, but we can definitely say that we are ready for an attack and that there will be no catastrophe.”

His comments came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reaffirmed Kyiv’s intention to take back the Black Sea peninsula that Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

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