Kyiv: Ukraine’s SBU security services on Sunday confirmed the identity of a Ukrainian soldier killed by a hail of bullets, in an execution video that went viral.
SBU investigators named the soldier as 42-year-old Oleksandr Igorovich Matsievsky, a sniper with the 163rd battalion of the territorial defence brigade in the Chernihiv region in northeastern Ukraine.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised Matsievsky’s “bravery” in his daily address, awarding the soldier the Hero of Ukraine title.
President Zelensky said Matsievsky was “a soldier, a person who will be remembered forever” by Ukrainians.
The soldier’s identity had been unclear, with conflicting statements from the military, which initially named two different servicemen.
The video footage appears to show a detained Ukrainian combatant standing in a shallow trench being shot dead by multiple automatic weapons after saying “Glory to Ukraine”.
According to the regional department of the Northern section of the Ukrainian armed forces, Moldova-born Matsievsky had been taken prisoner with four other Ukrainian soldiers in the region of Donetsk.
In recent days, his mother had confirmed her son’s identity in a television report.
The SBU said it identified Matsievsky based on “communication with relatives of the deceased, analysis of photos and videos and the forensic medical examination”.
“He is a true hero who, even in the face of death, has shown the whole world the character and how indomitable Ukrainians are,” SBU chief Vasyl Malyouk said in a press release.
Malyouk added that the Ukrainian security services were working to identify the Russian soldiers who “committed this bloody crime”.
