Russian commander suspected of involvement in murders of 17 Bucha residents

The commander of one of the Russian army platoons in Ukraine has been declared a suspect. On his orders, 17 civilians were killed during the occupation of Bucha in the Kyiv region in March 2022.

This was reported by the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.

He is one of six Russian military personnel suspected of committing war crimes in Bucha.

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

There they conducted so-called "filtration" of locals — searching, torturing, and killing pro-Ukrainian civilians who, in their opinion, could help the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

During March 2022, this officerʼs subordinates killed at least 17 people. To hide the crimes, the occupiers burned the bodies of some of the murdered.

The platoon commander encouraged his subordinates to commit atrocities, convincing them of impunity. He organized a reporting system through which he monitored all their actions in the occupied territory.

In addition, the commander himself directly participated in the ill-treatment of three civilians and threatened them with murder.

He was held accountable for three forms of war crimes — giving a criminal order, directly committing a crime together with other servicemen, and command responsibility (responsibility for crimes committed by subordinates).

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