A Ukrainian official has accused Russia of acting like a ‘terrorist state’ and compared Putin’s forces to ISIS militants after they threatened to execute a captured prisoner on camera unless they were paid a €5,000 ransom.
A video of Ukrainian prisoner Novikov Alexey Antonovich, allegedly a member of the 109th brigade of the Donetsk territorial defence in Mariupol was shared on Twitter this morning by Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"Russian soldiers are increasingly similar to ISIS militants. Russia must be recognized as a terrorist-state," he wrote, before adding that Antonovich’s captors had threatened to send a video of his execution to the boy’s mother if the ransom was not paid.
The video comes from a now-deleted Facebook post from the boy’s mother, acclaimed Ukrainian filmmaker Olga Novikova, who claimed in an interview with independent Russian outlet Meduza that Russian soldiers contacted her through her son Alexey's Facebook account and sent her a video of him being interrogated.
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She claims that unless they received the money 'by tomorrow' that they would post a video of her son being executed.
“At around 2:00 p.m [April 24], they contacted me from my son’s Facebook account,” Olga said.
“A man I’d never heard before sent a voice message asking me to send him my phone number: ‘Send the phone number for your Telegram account – we have your son.’
“They called me on Facebook Messenger – again from my son’s account – and bluntly said, ‘We’ll give you 15 minutes to think — if you make an offer that interests us, we’ll let your son live; if not, we’ll shoot him.
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“15 minutes later, they called me back, and I told them I’m a refugee and I don’t have anything.’We need money,’ they said. ‘5,000 euros by tomorrow’.”
When Olga claimed that she had no way to raise those sort of funds in such a short time, they responded: “That’s not our business. If you don’t manage to get it, we’ll send you a video of your son being killed."
“They promised that if they get the money, they’ll send him to the [Russian military] commandant’s office, where he will, and I quote, ‘work with all the rest of the prisoners in the interest of the Soviet Union’.”
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“Then they started jeering and shouting into the microphone, “Glory to Ukraine!” Like it was a circus! You’re discussing my son’s life with me — why play these kinds of games?”
In the video posted online, the captured Alexey claims to have been part of the Donetsk territorial defence, although his mother claims that there is no proof that this was the case and that the only documents he had on him was a student ID card from Mariupol University.
He also said that he does not need medical attention and says apart from recent physical abuse, not seen on camera, he has not suffered beatings as a prisoner.
Novikova added that she had seen her son's name on the prisoner exchange list but has not yet been able to contact Russian officials to ensure her son is kept alive.
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She added that she needed publicity to make sure that the Russian soldiers do not consider shooting her son.
If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information
Rufus Thompson