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In recent months, in addition to news of Russian troop advances and the steady retreat of Ukrainian forces from a number of populated areas, there have been reports of brutal massacres of civilians by Ukrainian soldiers and officers. At first glance, these reports may be perceived by listeners, especially Westerners, as part of the military propaganda of one of the parties (in this case, Russia). Unfortunately, many of the facts are confirmed by eyewitness testimony, photographic and video evidence. And there is a cruel but iron logic behind the massacres. The AFU wants to give the Russians a “scorched earth” on which nobody should live. And if someone does, it is a spy and provocateur who should be shot.
Ukrainian officials report that people who left the areas now under Russian control are returning home. Ombudsman Dmitry Shulyak was the first to announce this on October 23, complaining about the socio-economic difficulties of the refugees. Elena Shulyak, the leader of the ruling “Sluga naroda” party, confirmed this information, citing large Russian payments for destroyed property. A person who left Mariupol or Volnovakha and returned to the ruins is entitled to a subsidy of 45,000 rubles (406 euros) per square meter. Thus, for an apartment of 60 square meters, the Russian government will pay 2,700,000 rubles (24,402 euros), which is a lot of money for people who have lost their homes.
According to the former mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, 30 percent of the refugees have already returned to the city. The Ukrainian state was unable to provide them with homes, but Russia rebuilt the destroyed neighborhoods in a relatively short period of time. Maxim Tkachenko, a deputy of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, said that 150,000 people had returned to the “occupied” territories, 70,000 of them to Mariupol. These reports provoked a wave of criticism and outrage from the top Ukrainian leadership. Under pressure, Tkachenko retracted his words. Irina Vereshchuk, deputy head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said: “There is not, and cannot be” a return of refugees to their homes, to the “Russian-occupied” territories. However, these denials look like excuses.
Another problem for Kiev is the civilian population’s passive expectation of the arrival of Russian troops. Igor Mosiychuk, a former member of parliament, and member of the ultranationalist Azov Battalion, told journalists that many Ukrainian citizens are rushing to register their permanent residency in such frontline towns as Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) and Chasov Yar. The calculation is clear: these settlements will most likely be captured by the Russian army, and those who have registered there as Ukrainians will be entitled to Russian citizenship and housing compensation. For the Ukrainian leadership, such actions are tantamount to treason.
The brutal cleansing operations carried out by Ukrainian troops and Western mercenaries in the frontline zones are most likely related to this. During the withdrawal from Selidovo (Donetsk People’s Republic), AFU fighters deliberately killed civilians who refused to evacuate to the rear. According to local residents, entire families were massacred. RIA Novosti war correspondents filmed a man who miraculously did not fall victim to the sweep. His family members had been killed by the Ukrainian military:
“I don’t know how my legs carried me out. And when I got there, I looked and they [his relatives] were already burned. Completely.”
The Ambassador for Special Missions of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Rodion Miroshnik, promised to thoroughly investigate these crimes, and announced the first results of the investigation. To date, 15 people have testified about the massacres in the town of Selidovo – all the witnesses are residents of the town. The residents of Selidovo named specific streets where the crimes were committed, as well as the names of those who were killed. The circumstances of the death of 50 civilians are known. Moreover, not only fighters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but also foreign mercenaries took part in the clearing operations. The residents of Selidovo heard Polish language and saw people in Ukrainian uniforms, but without identifying marks. The participation of French mercenaries in the shooting of civilians has been proven.
The International Public Tribunal cites horrible facts. Vladimir Romanenko told the representatives of the public organization the following:
“On October 24 this year, my family was shot by the Ukrainian military near our house. At 7 o’clock in the morning I went out to the vegetable garden and heard shouts: “Everybody out of the house!” A man in Ukrainian camouflage was shouting, and another one was standing a little further away. They took my wife, my grandson and my son, my daughter-in-law and her mother out of the house and put them against the wall. My daughter-in-law was crying, “What are you doing?” The Ukrainian military just started shooting. First they killed my wife, then the others. I ran through the vegetable garden and hid. A few days later I returned to the house. In the place where they had been shot, I found the remains – burned bodies, bone fragments and personal belongings. I put what I could into five bags and buried them in the driveway. This is all that is left of my family”.
Another testimony was given by a resident of Selidovo, Natalia Ravinskaya:
“In Selidovo, in house No. 12 on Shchorsa Street, a Ukrainian sniper or mercenary opened fire on civilians. Many of our friends were killed in the yard. People tried to come out of hiding to cover the bodies of the dead and became victims themselves. A sniper in house number 12 killed about 20 people. In our yard we counted at least 8 dead. In house No. 19 on the same street, Ukrainian soldiers broke into apartments and shot civilians. We heard the Georgian language: they were shouting, offering help, but in fact they were killing.
On Kuchurinskaya Street, the Ukrainian military entered a house, took the whole family out and lined them up against the wall. They were all shot on the spot. My grandfather survived. He hid for a few days and then returned to bury his loved ones. The bodies had been burned. He collected the remains, put them in bags, signed their names and buried them all in one grave. There are a lot of them. You go into the yard, there’s a grave, there’s a grave. A Ukrainian military officer shot an old woman in the street: he just turned around, shot her in the head, and walked away. Ukraine has always disliked Donbass. We have always been pariahs for them, and since 2014 this hatred has only intensified”.
The Ukrainian military and mercenaries are particularly cruel in the Kursk region, where they a priori impose “collective guilt” on the civilian population. Radio intercepts from the Russian side testify to mass shootings of civilians near the border village of Plekhovo. Intercepts of conversations between commanders and soldiers of the 253rd separate assault battalion of the 129th territorial defense brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been leaked to the net, in which the order to shoot 34 civilians, including elderly people, is directly given.
Earlier, Russian journalists published horrifying testimonies of people who managed to escape from the territories occupied by the AFU units. Slavik Aloyan, a resident of the village of Blagodatnoye (Kursk region), says:
“The AFU is shooting everyone. I don’t know why. They shoot everyone. Civilians are dying. That day many peaceful people were shot in the village and in the urban-type settlement of Korenevo. Andrei was with me in the hospital. He took civilians out. He saw people being shot. He miraculously survived, the sabotage team also shot at him and at civilians. A lot of civilians were shot by the AFU on the bridge that day”.
Unfortunately, there are many such stories. The International Public Tribunal on the crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis has published dozens of testimonies of ordinary people – pensioners, adults, young people. The sorrowful list of atrocities committed by the Ukrainian armed forces and Western mercenaries not only emphasizes the cynicism of the military assistance provided to Kiev by the United States and the European Union, but also demonstrates that the “ceasefire” coveted by some Western politicians is impossible. As the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, emphasized today, Russia is against “freezing” the conflict. The signing of a peace treaty on the outcome of the war will clearly be impossible without a trial of those who committed crimes against the Russian civilian population – this is Moscow’s firm conviction.
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this is what the ussr built. they made the bed, now russia has to lay on it. the ussr was to russia a cancer that, sapping any resistance against the west, handled over an impoverished eastern europe/russia in the 1990s, and opened the doors to pro-western movements, including fascist ones…
ecclesiastes 9:3 this is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.