The Prosecutor Generalʼs Office writes that they have identified two occupiers involved in the shooting of Ukrainian childrenʼs writer Volodymyr Vakulenko and the murder of three more people during the occupation of Kharkiv region. They were informed of the suspicion of violating the laws and customs of war (Part 2 of Article 27, Part 1, Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1, Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code).
The suspects, natives of Luhansk, serve in the 4th company of the 4th battalion of the 204th rifle regiment of the mobilization reserve of the so-called "LPR" of the 2nd army corps of the 8th combined army of the Southern military district of the Russian Armed Forces. One of them is the company commander with the call sign "Lev" and his subordinate, the machine gunner Udod.
The extras last year were in the then-occupied village of Kapitolivka, Izyum district, when they learned that Ukrainian childrenʼs writer Volodymyr Vakulenko with a pro-Ukrainian position lives there.
According to the investigation, armed invaders came to his house on March 22, 2022 and conducted a "search" there, and then detained the writer and his 14-year-old son. They tried to persuade the man to cooperate with the occupiers. After the refusal, Lev and Udod forced him to undress, he refused again.
Two days later, the occupiers again came to the writer and took him away. Then the company commander Lev ordered his subordinate machine gunner to shoot the writer. Udod shot the man with Makarovʼs pistol. Volodymyr Vakulenko died on the spot, writes the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.
The suspects are also charged with the murders of three more civilians. Among them were a former member of the ATO and two other men. They were kept in a cellar in unsanitary conditions, without light, they were systematically beaten with sticks. Then the men were taken to the forest in Kapitolivka. The lion ordered Hoopoe to shoot them all. Two were killed by shots from Makarovʼs pistol. The third victim was beaten to death by the occupiers.
The law enforcement officers established another fact of brutal treatment of civilians by the suspects: they forced a hryvnia bill into one manʼs mouth and told him that they would shoot him if he took it out. He was kept in a cellar and then released.
The investigation revealed that Lev and Udod committed all crimes together with other Russian military personnel.
- Volodymyr Vakulenko, who was shot by the occupiers, was found by Viktoriya Amelina, a Ukrainian writer who died in a Russian attack on Kramatorsk. Then she worked as a documenter of war crimes in the de-occupied territories.
- Volodymyr Vakulenko is a laureate of the International Literary Prize named after Oles Ulyanenko, the All-Ukrainian Contest named after Les Martovych, the international contest "Coronation of the Word". He was awarded the "Silver Trident" honor for the 20th anniversary of the Independence of Ukraine for his literary achievements in 2011. He is the author of such books as "Monogram" (2008), "You...not" (2011), "Sunny Family" (2011), "We, Province!"(2012), "Daddyʼs Book" (2014).