Tuesday, 19 September ‘23

Occupation of Kyiv Region: 14,000 War Crimes Registered

Law enforcement officers have registered more than 14,000 alleged war crimes committed in the Kyiv region, according to regional prosecutor Maksym Krym.

This includes 78 Russian servicemen notified of suspected violations of the laws and customs of war, amongst them two generals and three representatives of the Wagner private military company as well as  private and non-commissioned officers. Indictments against 35 suspects have been sent to court, while 12 Russian soldiers have already been convicted of war crimes.

Military operations in the Kyiv region lasted for more than a month from the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, with 270 settlements occupied by Russian troops.

Suspicion Issued Over Holaya Prystan Kidnap

A Ukrainian citizen has been informed in absentia of the suspicion of giving an order to violate the laws and customs of war by a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine). Pylyp Kvartnyk, a major and the head of the engineering and technical department of the Berkut Special Purpose Militia Unit, is director of the Russian Guard in Crimea and Sevastopol. Kvartnyk was born in Russia but has Ukrainian citizenship and is currently being tried in absentia for high treason.

According to the investigation, on the morning of March 28, Kvartnyk arrived at the Holaya Prystan City Council in the Kherson region and ordered subordinates to kidnap and illegally imprison a civilian. The name and surname of the victim were not included in the suspicion, but it is known that the mayor of Holaya Prystan, Oleksandr Babichon, was kidnapped on the morning of March 28.

Russian troops occupied Holaya Prystan, with a population of 13,500,  on March 28, 2022. Located on the left bank of the Dniepro river, 40 kilometres from Kherson, the city remains under occupation.

Looting a Million Hryvnias Worth of Goods

Kyiv investigators have informed a Russian soldier from the 64th separate motorised rifle brigade of a suspicion in absentia concerning the violation of the laws and customs of war by a group of persons (part 2 of article 28, part 1 of article 438 of the criminal code). Anatoly Kostyuchenko, a native of the Donetsk region, is believed to have beaten a security guard and robbed a local enterprise selling rubber flooring during the occupation of the village of Dymer in the Kyiv region last year. On March 3, 2022, the suspect and his accomplices allegedly entered the enterprise by breaking down the gate in an armoured personnel carrier marked with the letter V. The suspect allegedly beat the security guard on the head and chest with a machine gun, and together with his accomplices, stole property estimated at more than one million hryvnias (30,000 US dollars).