Two Russian soldiers massacred two villages in a drunken rampage as they shot anyone who did not have alcohol, it is claimed.
Alexander Osipov, 34, and Alexander Kaigorodtsev, 37, are accused of leaving a trail of death in Ukraine as they drove around in a Patriot military pickup truck. Local reports suggested the pair, from the 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division of the Russian Ground Forces, killed seven people during the night of horror. A report said: "They killed residents and burned their houses if they were refused alcohol."
Despite the bloody massacre, no criminal cases have been opened in villages controlled by Putin's army, reported Astra independent media. Among the dead was collaborator Lyubov Tymchak, 54, the Russia-appointed head of occupied Abrikosivka village, who had earlier been a Ukrainian official before switching sides to the occupiers. Alexei Glinin, 40, reported to be Tymchak's partner and a Russian serviceman, was also killed.
Sergei Shuvaev, aged 32, was shot dead, as was a Russian serviceman, named Maxim. Both their bodies were set alight. In neighboring Podo-Kalynivka village, pensioner Valentina Starchenko, 65, was killed, it is alleged.
The pair are said to have doused the corpses of their victims with fuel in village houses and threw grenades at them to seek to cover up their crime, according to reports. They were eventually detained “on the point of unconsciousness” after their alcohol-fuelled killing spree. Osipov and Kaigorodtsev reportedly confessed to four murders but are now suspected of a total of seven killings.
Last week it was recorded that a loyal Vladimir Putin supporter was tortured by Russian soldiers who mistook him for a Ukrainian spy. Footage showed the man being held at gunpoint and marched in for interrogation with a bag over his head, after being stopped near an airbase.