RUSSKAYA LYAZHMAR, Russia — The final time Maria Knyazeva noticed her grandson, Personal Vasily Knyazev, was when he visited over the New 12 months vacation, touring from the Far Jap area of Khabarovsk. That’s the place he had been serving as a soldier within the sixty fourth Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.
“He had served below a contract three years in the past,” Knyazeva, 70, informed Idel.Realities as she planted potatoes within the yard of her home in a rural village. “His unit was from Khabarovsk. He got here right here from there.”
Knyazeva stated she will not be certain what her grandson is to date. She stated she didn’t know that he’s, in all chance, among the many tens of hundreds of Russian troopers who’ve been preventing in Ukraine within the greatest struggle in Europe in practically eight a long time.
She doesn’t know that he’s been implicated in struggle crimes that Ukrainian authorities, rights teams, and survivors say have been dedicated by Russian army items towards civilians within the districts north of Kyiv in March.
Now in its fifth month, Russia’s “particular army operation” — because the Kremlin insists on calling the struggle — has shifted away from north-central Ukraine, the place Ukrainian forces beat again an invasion pressure that had sought to grab the capital and topple the federal government.
Within the wake of the withdrawal of Russian forces — who pulled out of areas north of Kyiv and Chernihiv in late March and shifted east and south, to focus on seizing and holding territories there — Ukrainian and worldwide investigators have uncovered a path of atrocities allegedly dedicated by Russian army items within the districts they’d occupied: Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, and others.
The our bodies of a minimum of 403 individuals who have been killed by the Russian troops had been positioned and are being recognized, Bucha’s mayor stated on April 12.
Whereas eyewitnesses have offered brutal first-hand accounts of civilians being summarily shot, in some circumstances executed with their arms tied behind their backs, investigators have additionally stated they positioned a trove of laptop recordsdata that have been left on the short-term Russian army headquarters in Bucha when the troopers retreated.
The recordsdata embrace a listing of 1,600 troopers from the sixty fourth Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade who served in Bucha and close by districts.
On April 28, Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, Iryna Venediktova, revealed a listing of 10 names that she stated had been recognized as being members of the rifle brigade.
Brokers from the Safety Service of Ukraine, the nation’s predominant intelligence company, additionally stated they’d obtained a mobile phone that had been left behind within the Bucha space by a Russian soldier from the sixty fourth Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade.
The cellphone, in line with the service, contained private pictures that have been then offered to a gaggle of open-source researchers referred to as InformNapalm.
InformNapalm later stated it had recognized the cellphone’s proprietor as a sergeant who served in a reconnaissance unit of the Khabarovsk-based rifle brigade.
From pictures and different knowledge on the cellphone, the group compiled its personal checklist of troopers it stated had served within the rifle brigade in Bucha.
Volga Troopers
Utilizing the lists complied by Ukrainian prosecutors and the open-source researchers, Idel.Realities, a venture of RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service, recognized and sought to contact 11 troopers who had served with the rifle brigade who have been initially from Russia’s central Volga area. All have been contacted initially utilizing VK, the Russian social media large, the place they’d profiles.
One man, recognized on the lists as Aleksandr Koloyarov from the Saratov Oblast, informed RFE/RL by way of a VK non-public message that he had served with the sixty fourth brigade however had retired in 2018. His rank was unknown.
One other man, Viktor Loktionov, responded to RFE/RL by way of a VK message: “Ship an article or a minimum of a supply so I can learn what I am speaking about there, having nothing to do with it.” He later stopped speaking.
Loktionov’s passport was issued within the Orenburg area, in line with InformNapalm’s knowledge. His rank was additionally unknown.
One other man who appeared on InformNapalm’s checklist was Aleksandr Yegorov. He denied he had ever served within the sixty fourth Brigade.
Yet one more title that appeared on the lists was Personal Aleksei Shiyan. RFE/RL positioned his mom, Yelena Zakharova, who lives within the Urals area of Perm. She responded to questions in regards to the Bucha occasions, replying by way of VK: “Who got here up with this? That is some form of nonsense.”
Shiyan had by no means been in Ukraine, she stated.
“The whole lot is okay with my son. He has a household — a spouse, and their daughter is rising up,” she informed RFE/RL earlier than she then blocked a reporter from speaking additional along with her.
Vasya Knyazev From Mari-El
Personal Knyazev, whose title seems on the checklist compiled by Ukrainian prosecutors, hails from the Mari-El area, a small, poor area on the Volga River about 800 kilometers east of Moscow.
On VK, Knyazev referred to as himself Vasya — a diminutive of his title. One of many pictures on the account — dated January 20, 2021 — comprises exact coordinates the place it was taken: the house base of army unit No. 51460 of the sixty fourth Rifle Brigade.
In one other {photograph}, posted on December 19, 2021, a younger man believed to be Knyazev is proven in a darkish down jacket and white sneakers subsequent to a monument close to the Kremlin in Moscow.
Knyazev didn’t reply to a number of messages despatched to him by way of VK.
Passport knowledge revealed by InformNapalm reveals that Knyazev’s predominant ID doc was issued within the village of Sernur in Mari-El. The birthdate given on the checklist compiled by InformNapalm and the birthdate listed on Knyazev’s VK account are the identical.
RFE/RL contacted considered one of Knyazev’s buddies listed on VK, an individual named Pyotr Knyazev. The individual replied that Vasily Knyazev had not served within the army since 2020.
In line with Maria Knyazeva, Pyotr is Vasily’s brother.
Different data on Knyazev’s VK account indicated his hometown was Russkaya Lyazhmar, the place he graduated from highschool, although it was unclear when.
Knyazeva informed RFE/RL that Knyazev’s mom had been killed a number of years in the past, by his father.
RFE/RL didn’t converse to the daddy, who additionally lives with Knyazeva, and couldn’t verify that he killed his spouse.
One other title recognized by prosecutors was Mikhail Kashin, a 24-year-old from Votkinsk, a city in one other central area, Udmurtia. Kashin, whose rank was unknown, didn’t reply to messages despatched by way of VK in search of remark.
Contacted by RFE/RL, Kashin’s sister, Yekaterina Cherepanova, declined to debate her brother’s army service:
“I don’t know something about it in any respect,” she stated by way of a VK message.
‘Mass Heroism And Bravery’
The efforts of Ukrainian and worldwide prosecutors have drawn assist from United Nations and European Union officers, and from a few of Ukraine’s greatest monetary supporters.
Throughout an unannounced go to to Kyiv this week, the highest legislation enforcement official in america, Legal professional Normal Merrick Garland, stated he was appointing a veteran prosecutor with expertise monitoring former Nazis to assist Ukraine in monitoring Russian struggle criminals.
For Russia’s half, neither the Kremlin nor Russian commanders have made any public acknowledgment of the mounting proof and allegations that Russian troops could have dedicated struggle crimes.
On April 19, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree lauding the work of the sixty fourth Separate Guards Motor Rifle Brigade and praising it for “mass heroism and bravado, steadfastness, and fortitude” and for “distinguishing itself in army motion for the safety of the Fatherland and state pursuits.”
