The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has identified eight more Russian soldiers suspected of war crimes in Bucha near Kyiv, where mass graves of civilians and corpses with traces of torture were found after a month-long Russian occupation.
The eight soldiers, most of whom belong to Unit 6720 of the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia), are also suspected of looting in houses abandoned by Bucha residents, the Guardian newspaper reported late on Tuesday, quoting an SBU communiqué on Telegram.
“These Russian soldiers looted for themselves: computers, household appliances, jewellery, gadgets, clothes, food (…). It has been documented that the perpetrators sent the stolen goods to their relatives in postal parcels from the Belarusian town of Mozyr,” we read in the communiqué.
The soldiers have been notified that they are suspects, according to the SBU statement, which was accompanied by their photos. The crimes of which they are suspected are punishable by eight to 12 years in prison under Ukrainian law.
Russian troops occupied Bucha and other towns near Kyiv during the initial phase of the invasion but withdrew from the area in late March and early April. After their departure, mass graves of civilians and corpses with traces of torture were found there. Witness accounts indicate that Russian soldiers raped and deliberately killed civilians.
The Ukrainian Attorney General’s Office reported earlier that it had established the identities of at least 10 Russian soldiers who took part in the crimes in Bucha, the Guardian recalls.