119th Brigade believes video of Ukrainian POW execution shows their soldier

The 119th Territorial Defence Brigade of Chernihiv Oblast believes that the captured Ukrainian soldier whom Russian invaders shot after he had said "Glory to Ukraine" was Oleksandr Matsiievskyi, a soldier of this brigade.

Source: 119th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade of Chernihiv Oblast

Quote: "On 6 March 2023, another piece of evidence of Russian war crimes was published online. The whole of Ukraine saw the execution of a Ukrainian soldier, a fighter of the 163rd Battalion of the 119th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade.

The video of Oleksandr Matsiievskyi’s heroic death went viral in a day and left no one indifferent."

Details: The military reports that on 30 December 2022, Matsiievskyi and four other soldiers engaged in an encounter battle with superior Russian forces while moving on the suburbs of the city of Soledar.

On the same day, at 12:00, visual contact and communication with them disappeared.

The reinforcements could not break through to their position due to continuous mortar and heavy small-arms fire.

The 119th Brigade reports they don’t know the details of this fighting: "There is no information on who was killed as well as the circumstances, and how Oleksandr was captured, because, unfortunately, there are no witnesses left, as all are killed or missing".

In the video circulated, Matsiievskyi was identified by his mother, his son Mykhailo and members of his military unit.

The defenders’ bodies who died in that battle were handed over to the Ukrainian side and buried in the city of Nizhyn, Chernihiv Oblast, on 14 February 2023.

Matsiievskyi was reportedly born on 10 May 1980, in Moldova. He left high school and graduated from an electrical engineering college there. The family then moved back to Nizhyn, his homeland.

He worked in his specialty until February 2022. Starting from the first day of the full-scale aggression, the man went to the Nizhyn territorial recruitment and social support centre but could not join the army at once.

The man helped to build fortifications, kept watch at the checkpoint, prepared Molotov cocktails and kept coming back to the draft office.

On 11 March, he was enlisted in the Nizhyn Territorial Defence Battalion.

Matsiievskyi was assigned as a sniper. On 29 December, he called his mother for the last time. In that conversation, the man told his mother he would "never get into captivity".

Previously: Social media had several suggestions about the deceased’s name.

Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister, has called on to wait until the official confirmation of the Ukrainian soldier’s identity, whose video of the execution was posted the day before.

Background:

• On 6 March, a horrific video of the execution of a Ukrainian soldier whom the Russian occupiers had captured was posted online. In the last moments of his life, the Ukrainian PoW said "Glory to Ukraine!".
• The Security Service of Ukraine has opened a criminal proceeding regarding the video in which Russian invaders shot a Ukrainian soldier.
• Ned Price, the US State Department spokesperson, said that the State Department was aware of the video of the execution of an unarmed Ukrainian soldier in Russian captivity. Price condemned the Russian soldiers who carried out the execution.

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