Kyiv:

Ukraine’s SBU security services confirmed on Sunday 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 from the 163rd Battalion of the Territorial Defense Brigade in the Chernihiv region of northeastern Ukraine.

On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised Matsievsky’s “courage” in his daily speech, awarding the soldier the title of Hero of Ukraine.

President Zelensky said Matsievsky was “a soldier, a person who will be remembered forever” by Ukrainians.

The soldier’s identity was unclear, with conflicting statements from the military, which initially named two different servicemen.

The video footage appears to show a detained Ukrainian fighter being shot dead in a shallow trench by multiple automatic weapons after saying “Glory to Ukraine”.

According to the Regional Branch of the Northern Section of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Moldovan-born Matsievsky had been captured in the Donetsk region along with four other Ukrainian soldiers.

His mother had confirmed her son’s identity in a television report in recent days.

The SBU said it identified Matsievsky based on “communications 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 unyielding Ukrainians are,” SBU chief Vasyl Malyouk said in a press release.

Malyouk added that Ukrainian security services were working to identify the Russian soldiers who “committed this bloody crime”.

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