A Pskov sniper is suspected of killing civilians during the occupation of Bucha in the Kyiv region.
This is reported by the National Police.
According to the investigation, on March 4, 2022, a 37-year-old local resident in civilian clothes was walking down one of the streets of Bucha. He was shot at by Russian military personnel and taken at gunpoint to a house on Yablunska Street, where they set up a headquarters.
There, the prisoner was illegally detained and interrogated about the location of the Ukrainian troops and his cooperation with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“Not receiving the desired answers, the hostage was tortured. Then one of the occupiers took the man outside, ordered him to kneel and shot him in the head,” the law enforcement officers noted.
And already on March 6, 2022, Russian soldiers saw a 55-year-old local resident on the street. First, he was shot in the chest, the second bullet hit his neck and became fatal.
It was found that the death involved a native of the Russian city of Pskov, born in 1986, who at the time of the murders was a reconnaissance sniper in the 234th Airborne Assault Regiment of the 76th Division of the Russian Armed Forces. His actions are classified as war crimes.
In the Kyiv region, Russian soldiers killed almost 1,500 civilians.
What is known about the occupation and liberation of Bucha from Russian troops?
Bucha was under occupation for 33 days. Russian military personnel in heavy equipment entered Bucha on the morning of February 27. On the same day, a rocket hit a residential building, and the city's mayor, Anatoliy Fedoruk, reported the first deaths.
Russian troops left the city on March 31, 2022. On the evening of April 2, the Ministry of Defense officially announced that all settlements in the Kyiv region had been liberated from Russian military.
When journalists and Ukrainian military personnel entered the city after Bucha was liberated, they discovered evidence of mass killings, some bodies lying on the street, some with their hands tied behind their backs. Ukraine officially called on the world to join the investigation into the killings of civilians in Bucha. On April 14 last year, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, personally visited Bucha.
April 8, 2022 in In the city of Bucha, Kyiv region, the exhumation of bodies from a mass grave near the Church of Andrew the First-Called and All Saints began in order to identify people and establish the circumstances of their deaths.
The private American company Maxar Technologies reported that the first signs of a mass grave near the Church of Andrew the First-Called and All Saints in Bucha were recorded on satellite images as early as March 10, 2022.
Law enforcement officers have recorded over 9,000 war crimes committed by the Russian army during the occupation of the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. Over 1,700 civilians were killed. In 2022 alone, law enforcement officers managed to identify 91 Russian servicemen who committed war crimes. The Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that they had destroyed the Russian servicemen who tortured civilians in Bucha.