This concerns the commander of one of the platoons of the Russian army, who has been notified of suspicion for issuing orders for killings, direct involvement in crimes, and illegal actions of subordinates.

He is one of six suspected Russian soldiers who committed atrocities in Bucha and believed that no one would ever find them. However, prosecutors have brought them to criminal responsibility.

According to the investigation, on March 7, 2022, during the occupation of Kyiv region, servicemen of the 234th Air Assault Regiment of the 76th Airborne Division of the Russian Armed Forces, under the command of a lieutenant, established control over the "Lisova Bucha" area.

While conducting the so-called "filtering," they carried out searches, torture, and killings of pro-Ukrainian peaceful residents who, in their opinion, could assist the Ukrainian defense forces.

During March 2022, the subordinates of this officer killed at least 17 civilians. To conceal the crimes, they burned the bodies of some of the victims.

The platoon commander, instead of adhering to the laws and customs of war, violated them himself, urging his subordinates to commit atrocities, convincing them of their impunity. He organized a reporting system, through which he was aware of all their actions in the occupied territory, and had real opportunities to prevent crimes or punish those who committed them.

His actions and orders created a system in which violence against peaceful residents became the norm for the entire unit. The commander of this unit fully controlled the actions of his subordinates.

Moreover, it has been established that the commander himself was directly involved in the cruel treatment of three civilians and threatened them with murder.

Under the procedural guidance of prosecutors from the Office of the Prosecutor General, a large-scale complex of investigative actions has been conducted:

over 330 victims and witnesses have been interrogated, 59 investigative experiments have been conducted, 86 identifications by photographs, 89 inspections of crime scenes, and 3 exhumations of the bodies of the deceased.

The evidence obtained allowed for a detailed reconstruction of the circumstances surrounding the murders of 17 civilians.

As a result of the work carried out by investigators and prosecutors, comprehensive evidence regarding the crimes has been collected. The direct perpetrators have been identified, and a unique, comprehensive legal assessment of the actions of the platoon commander has been provided. He has been held accountable for three forms of war crimes — issuing a criminal order, direct commission of a crime in conjunction with other servicemen, and command responsibility (responsibility for crimes committed by subordinates).

The pre-trial investigation in this case is ongoing. Prosecutors and investigators continue to gather evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian occupation forces in Bucha.

The pre-trial investigation, under the procedural guidance of the Office of the Prosecutor General, is being conducted by investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the National Police with the assistance of the Main Intelligence Directorate.

We publish the full text of the suspicion against this Russian commander so that everyone who wishes can familiarize themselves and assess the scale of the degradation of the Russian army and the cruelty of its soldiers.