The Russian 64 separate motorized rifle brigade from Khabarovsk Krai, which participated in the invasion of Kyiv oblast and was “famous” because of the war crimes in Bucha, is now almost completely destroyed. Of the personnel, almost no one survived, but the brigade is not disbanded, as this could be an acknowledgment of Russiaʼs responsibility for war crimes in Ukraine.
Radio Svoboda writes about it.
Journalists spoke with military medic Aleksei Astashov, who posted a photo of a stand with mourning photos of 44 soldiers and officers of this brigade on the VKontakte social network on August 7. The photo was taken in military unit 51460 in the village of Kniaze-Volkonske, where the brigade is based. In the caption, he indicated that the photo shows owners of the Order of Courage (posthumously) who died in Ukraine. According to him, this is 1/10 of all the dead.
Astashov said that 1,500 soldiers from this brigade were sent to the war — officers, contract workers and conscripts who hastily signed the contract. They were sent to Ukraine from Belarus. Astashov also said that the brigade fought without rotations, which is why at least a hundred fighters refused to fight. Astashov himself does not believe that the 64th Brigade committed crimes.
It is interesting that on the stand there is a photo of Nikita Akimov, who was notified in absentia by the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office at the end of April about the suspicion of torturing the residents of Bucha.
Journalists managed to confirm the death of 30 of the 44 people on the stand. In the article, they indicated the names and dates of death of military personnel. Half of them died in February and March in Kyiv oblast, the rest in Kharkiv oblast, in the Izyum direction. On April 25, as follows from the dates of death on the stand, seven soldiers of the 64th brigade died at once. On the same day, according to the summary of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Russian troops stormed two districts near Izyum.
The fact of the death of some soldiers who got to the mourning stand is confirmed by photographs from the cemetery in Khabarovsk.
At the request of journalists, analysts calculated that there was almost nothing left of the brigade, which Putin assigned the rank of "Guards", taking into account the dead, wounded and those who refused to continue fighting, the brigade could lose a thousand people. Its remains can now be scattered among other units.
- On April 4, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense received a list of military personnel of 64 separate motorized rifle brigades of the 35th Combined Arms Army of the Russian Federation who committed war crimes in Buch, Kyiv region. The document has 87 pages. This list contains the names, dates of birth, passport data and titles of the occupants.
- Earlier, the adviser to the head of the Presidentʼs Office, Oleksiy Arestovych, called the 64th motorized rifle brigade involved in crimes against civilians.
- At least 458 Ukrainians died in the Buchansk community during the Russian invasion and occupation. As of August 9, specialists have determined that 419 people were killed, the bodies of 116 of them were found in a mass grave near the Church of St. Andrew the First-Called. Among the dead were 12 children — most of them were shot in cars.