This is the moment a Russian soldier held two grenades in the air as he walked among Ukrainians demanding that they surrender.
The footage, filmed in Konotop, shows the Russian serviceman holding what appear to be two grenades above his head as he walked through a crowd of furious Ukrainian citizens shouting ‘shame’.
Others told Moscow’s men, ‘don’t walk around showing your grenade off’, while others jostled with the soldier, seemingly oblivious to the danger of the grenades.
The soldier was in the city, on Ukraine’s south coast, to negotiate a Ukrainian surrender with residents after encircling the city.
He reportedly spoke with Konotop Mayor Artem Semenikhin and presented an ultimatum – surrender or fight.
Semenikhin, speaking from the city centre after the Russian soldiers had left, could be heard asking residents which option they wanted, to which the Ukrainians responded: ‘Fight, of course.’
It comes as Russian forces on Thursday morning captured their first major city in Ukraine with Kherson – regional capital of 300,000 people on the Black Sea – now under the control of Putin’s forces.
Russian troops have encircled major cities Chernihiv, in the north-west, and Mariupol, in the south, as well as Kyiv and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s two largest cities – though all remained under Ukrainian control by Thursday morning.
Konotop Mayor Artem Semenikhin spoke to residents after Russian forces left the city centre, asking them whether they wanted to surrender or fight.
In a rousing speech, Semenikhin said: ‘They have given us an ultimatum – if we start resisting they will pull the city to pieces with artillery. You say yes then we will fight. Who’s for fighting?’
‘I am for fighting! Listen, we should take the decision all together because the artillery is aimed at us already.’
The crowd can be heard telling Semenikhin: ‘Fight, of course’.
