The Russian publication "Important Stories" learned the names of Russian soldiers who were involved in the murders of local residents of the village of Andriyivka in the Makariv district of the Kyiv region — they were called and one soldier even confessed to everything.
The occupants were identified thanks to the photo. The Russians stole a smartphone from a pensioner, took pictures on it, and when they fled Kyiv oblast, they left the phone behind. The device was eventually returned to its owner, and the journalists were able to identify the personalities on those photos.
On the photo are employees of the 64th Motorized Rifle Brigade: Danilo Frolkin, Dmytro Danilov, Ruslan Glotov and Ivan Shepelenko. As for stories by local residents, these Russians may be involved in robberies, looting and even murder. "Vazhnye Istorii" (“Important Stories”) found the contacts of all participants of the "photo session" in Andriivka, two agreed to talk to journalists: Danilo Frolkin and Dmytro Danilov.
From left to right: Danylo Frolkin, Dmytro Danilov, Ruslan Glotov, Ivan Shepelenko.
Conversation with Danilov. He said that initially, in January 2022, he and his colleagues were sent to Belarus "for training". According to him, already during the training, many "began to guess" that they might be sent to Ukraine. In February, the military announced a "special operation".
"They said that now we will go to intimidation for three days. The special operation has begun, Luhansk and Donetsk are now recognized as peopleʼs republics, they will be included in the Russian Federation, and you will leave from there," told the Russian occupier. The main goal of the "special operation" as for Danilovʼs understanding is "the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazis." The occupier himself denied involvement in the killings of civilians. Danilov has already returned home from Ukraine and immediately wrote a resignation letter. He does not want to return to the war, because "there is nothing to do there", he is "not happy about the invasion, but not in such a way that he has a negative attitude towards it."
A conversation with Frolkin. He found out that he was going to war on February 23, at the line-up after the festive dinner. When asked about robbery and looting, Frolkin replies that he and his friends only took "any bullshit" from local houses: a bottle of wine or beer, a barbecue, food. At the same time, the military man does not deny that the Russian military was engaged in looting in Andriivka. Frolkin, as well as Danilov, says that he did not kill any of the residents of Andriivka.
A few hours after the first conversation, Danylo Frolkin offers the journalist to make a video call via messenger and asks to include the recording: "Me, a soldier of military unit 51460, Guards Corporal, Danylo Andriyovych Frolkin, confess to all the crimes, which I committed in Andriivka: the shooting of the civilian population, robbing the civilian population, confiscating their phones, and the fact that our command does not give a damn about our fighters, all the infantry fighting on the front line, on the front line." After that, Frolkin asks to punish the commanders and tells that the deputy commander of the brigade, lieutenant colonel Oleksandr Prokurat, ordered people to be shot.
Frolkin also confessed to the murder of Ruslan Yaremchuk, who allegedly transmitted the coordinates of the Russian military.
During and after the occupation, 13 dead bodies with bullet wounds were found in Andriivka, where about one and a half thousand people lived before the war. According to the stories of the locals, they were shot in the village without a trial or investigation, sometimes without even taking prisoners or interrogating them.
- On August 10, it became known that the Russian 64th separate motorized rifle brigade from the Khabarovsk Territory, which participated in the invasion of Kyiv oblast and was distinguished by war crimes in Bucha, was almost completely destroyed. Almost none of the personnel survived, but the brigade is not being disbanded, as this could be an acknowledgment of Russiaʼs responsibility for war crimes in Ukraine.
- 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 Bucha, Kyiv oblast. The document has 87 pages. This list contains the names, dates of birth, passport data and titles of the occupants.