Fresh evidence shows how grim life is under Russian occupation in Ukraine

Military police reports from Izyum describe everyday acts of brutality


  • by
  • 09 22, 2022
  • in Europe

( real name) appears from behind a tall wooden fence to confirm the details of the police report. The 73-year-old clutches the lace of her white dress as she recounts the events of a night in mid-June. She woke to the sound of Russian soldiers in her home, she said. One of them gestured to the others to leave and introduced himself as Alexander, a 22 year-old from Vladivostok. He had been drinking. Would she let him buy her house? Russia paid him well, and if not “I’ll kill you and the house will be mine anyway.” Suddenly, he grabbed her and forced himself on top of her. After ten minutes of what he appeared to think was intercourse (but was not, Raisa says), the soldier got up and asked where he could find younger women. On his way out he said he would booby-trap the door with grenades. The incident may be the most shocking detailed in a stack of crime reports from obtained by . The reports, written by Russian military police, relate to a few separate periods, numbering several days each, in April, May and June. They therefore describe only crimes reported to the occupying authorities, which many victims may have been too scared to do. Yet they offer a horrifying glimpse of . The papers detail two violent rapes; dozens of robberies; and reports of missing people, some snatched from the street. They also include a letter from a Russian mother begging military authorities to discharge her son because he suffers from piles.

  • Source Fresh evidence shows how grim life is under Russian occupation in Ukraine
  • you may also like