The international community is shocked after the video of an unarmed Ukrainian soldier being executed went viral earlier this week.

– This is a perfectly clear war crime, Arne Bård Dalhaug, retired lieutenant general and former OSCE monitor in Donbass, told Dagbladet.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has already launched an investigation, and Russia’s condemnation over the video – which was allegedly posted by Russian soldiers on Telegram on Monday – is long.

hero status

Already on Tuesday, the murdered soldier belonged to the Ukrainian army identified as Tymofij Mykolaivych Shadura of the Ukrainian 30th Mechanized Brigade.

Sjadura fought at Bakhmut in Donbass and was reported missing on February 3. His sister said BBC Wednesday that she recognized the brother in the gruesome video.

– Surely he could have challenged the Russians like that, she said – referring to the fact that the slain soldier said “Glory to Ukraine!” just before the first hit knocks him to the ground.

Sjadura quickly gained hero status among Ukrainians, and already has its own Wikipedia article.

– Everyone is shocked and crying. I want to say that Tymofij Shadura’s actions are heroic, said Mala Derevytshka, a resident of the soldier’s hometown, halfway between Kyiv and Lviv. The Guardian.

Coated in the center

But it wasn’t long before reports started circulating that the wrong man had been named as the victim. Just 24 hours after Shadura’s appointment, the Ukrainian 163rd Battalion came out and established that the man in the video was Oleksandr Igorevich Matsijevskyj, 42, from Nizhyn, north of Kyiv.

– Attempts to divert attention

In a long post on Facebook profiled Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov makes several arguments that it is Matsijevskyj and not Shadura who appears in the video.

At the center of Butusov’s evidence is a photo of the 42-year-old taken ten days before he disappeared outside the nearby town of Bakhmut, Soledar, now taken by the Russians, on December 30. In the photo, Matsijevskyj has a large spot on his right eye – like the soldier in the video.

According to the independent site Jellyfish Spokespersons from the Ukrainian Defense Forces Northern Regional Command confirmed on Thursday that Matsijevskyj was reported missing outside Soledar on the day in question.

– Recognized by son

Matsijevsky’s brigade further states that the 42-year-old’s mother and 19-year-old son recognized him in the video. “I saw how my father was killed! the son, Mykhailo, would have said.

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian army issued a reservation that it must wait for the body of the murdered soldier to be handed over by the Russians, so that the identity can be established with certainty.

But here there is an important difference: while Shadura still has the status of missing, Matsijevskyj’s body was exchanged for Russian soldiers killed already in January and returned to the family in February.

In his hometown of Nizhny, Matsijevskyj worked as an electrician before joining the army immediately after the invasion last February, according to journalist Butusov.

I want a statue

Residents of the local community are convinced the 42-year-old is the soldier in the video and have made a pilgrimage to his grave. The Guardian reporter saw a young man this week lighting a cigarette and placing it on the headstone; the soldier in the video is about to smoke when he is shot.

– Desperate

– We should erect a statue of him in the city, said an elderly woman to the British newspaper. Nizhyn Mayor Oleksandr Kodola supports this, possibly naming a street after him.

It may be relevant to exhume Matsijevskyj’s body, so that forensic experts can determine whether he is the man in the video or not. The police and army have already prepared documents for this to happen.

– Of course, they can conclude that the hero is not Matsijevskyj, but a completely different person. That’s why we have to wait for the High Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to make an official statement, Mayor Kodola tells the Guardian.

Friday morning it’s still going a discussion on Wikipedia whether the article on the “murder of Tymofij Shadura” should be changed so that Matsijevskyj is identified as the murdered soldier.