The colors of the Ukrainian national flag. The hand was from a body of the hundreds of victims of Russian troops, soldiers, and civilians, exhumed from a mass burial site near the then-just-liberated Izium, a city in Kharkiv Oblast, in September 2022. Captured by journalists, the photo spread worldwide and became a symbol of Russian violence and Ukrainian resistance.Many assumed that the man, soon identified as a Ukrainian soldier Serhii Sova, was killed in battle. Only one person knew that the truth was more grim. Months earlier, Sova’s widow saw the photos of her dead husband on Russian Telegram channels. The photos showed he had been shot in the head, his hands tied behind his back. All signs pointed to the fact that he had been executed while in Russian captivity.