This horrifying 12-second video of an unarmed Ukrainian POW being killed by Russian soldiers tells you everything you need to know about Putin’s war of aggression.
Just before being shot, he looks defiantly at his killers who demanded that he remove his army chevron and says, “Glory to Ukraine.”
(This video is very graphic and might be quite disturbing and we have made a decision to report on it but not embed it for obvious reasons. You can view it here but be advised it is graphic.)
What We Know
His name is probably Oleksandr Matsiyevsky, and he was born on May 10, 1980, north-east of Kyiv in the city of Nizhyn, Chernihiv province. (Some Ukrainian sources say he might be one Tymofii Shadura: regardless of the name, the story is the same.)
Although Matsiyevsky hadn’t served in the army, he volunteered after the Russian invasion of February 24, 2022, and was assigned to the 163rd battalion of the 119th brigade of the Territorial Defense forces.
In November his unit was transferred to the area of Bakhmut in the east, the site of especially heavy fighting. He appears to have been captured in January 2023; he was buried in Nizhyn on February 14.
The image of Matsiyevsky glaring at his captors has become iconic and has gone viral.
The Reaction
The Ukrainian journalist and military analyst, Yuri Butusov, put it well:
“The Russians who posted the video tried to humiliate his memory. But, in fact, the whole world saw the terrible crime of the Russian military against an unarmed soldier. The Russian army surrenders captured cities without a fight, Russian troops run away from the battlefield if they are surrounded, Russian soldiers are easily captured, because for them this war is only a large source of income, a career, a release from prison.
Ukraine is waging a war for independence, Ukrainians go to battle for the sake of the Ukrainian nation, Ukrainians give their lives for their land, for the sake of the memory of fallen heroes, for the sake of dignity and honor.
We have many symbols of this great war. But here are a few seconds, when the Hero looks into the face of death and … answers “Glory to Ukraine!” – this is exactly the force that defeated the “second army of the world”….
We will win because Russia does not have a single such warrior, and because Ukraine is defended by many tens of thousands of heroes….”
Butusov’s last sentence bears repeating: Ukrainians are fighting for a cause. The Russians are not. They will lose.
Transparency Note:
19FortyFive cannot confirm the video’s authenticity. However, we have shown it to several Russian military affairs experts who do have every reason to believe it is authentic. This piece has been updated to take into account breaking information.
A 19FortyFive Contributing Editor, Dr. Alexander Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires, and theory, he is the author of 10 books of nonfiction, including Pidsumky imperii (2009); Puti imperii (2004); Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires (2001); Revolutions, Nations, Empires: Conceptual Limits and Theoretical Possibilities (1999); Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism (1993); and The Turn to the Right: The Ideological Origins and Development of Ukrainian Nationalism, 1919–1929 (1980); the editor of 15 volumes, including The Encyclopedia of Nationalism (2000) and The Holodomor Reader (2012); and a contributor of dozens of articles to academic and policy journals, newspaper op-ed pages, and magazines. He also has a weekly blog, “Ukraine’s Orange Blues.”
