The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on March 12 that the results of an investigation showed that the serviceman who was seen in a widely-shared video, executed by his captors after saying the patriotic salute “Glory to Ukraine!”, was Oleksandr Matsievskyi.
42-year-old Matsievskyi was a sniper of the 163rd battalion of the 119th separate brigade of the territorial defense of Chernihiv Oblast.
According to the SBU, Matsievsky is understood to have been executed on Dec. 30 last year, shortly after his capture near Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast.
In the evening of March 12, Matsievskyi was awarded posthumously by President Zelensky as a Hero of Ukraine, the highest individual honor in the country.
On March 6, popular Ukrainian bloggers shared a video in which an unarmed man in a military uniform with a Ukrainian flag was shot by multiple rifle bursts after saying the Ukrainian national salute.
Final confirmation took days as there was initial confusion about the man's identity.
On March 7, Ukraine's 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade tentatively identified the soldier as its serviceman who went missing near Bakhmut on Feb. 3. Shortly after their statement, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces presented the same version in their own post, but added that final confirmation would come after an investigation.
