The Despicable Ten: Ukraine reveals the faces of Russian soldiers accused of being among the ‘Butchers of Bucha’ who tortured and murdered civilians
- Billed ‘the Despicable Ten’ by the Ukrainian Army, they face war crimes charges for alleged atrocities in Bucha
- The 64th Motorized Brigade soldiers reportedly butchered innocents in Bucha on their way out of Ukraine
- More than 400 were slaughtered, many of them civilians, in cruel Kyiv area campaign which killed thousands
- Same squad ‘sent to their deaths in Donbas so they can’t testify at trial, analysts suggest amid redeployment
- Savage Red Army unit retreated to Belarus and Russia but have since been put back into the conflict
- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
Ukrainian military officials have pictured and revealed names of Russian soldiers dubbed the ‘Despicable Ten’ who they accuse of carrying out war crimes in Bucha.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence released the names and faces of the men, stating: ‘Ten Russian butchers from the 64th brigade have been identified and named suspects responsible for committing the Bucha massacre.
‘This unit [has] been awarded for its atrocities, and returned to the battlefield. Justice for war criminals is inevitable.’
Horrific images of dozens of bodies in civilian clothes lying in the streets, some with their hands tied behind their backs, in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv, shocked the world when they emerged earlier this month. There were also reports of mass rapes.
Amid global outrage over the killings, the leader of the ‘Butchers of Bucha’ Russian brigade was promoted from Lieutenant Colonel to full Colonel last week.
Corporal Andrei Bizyaev (left), 33, has reportedly served in the Red Army for over ten years. He is originally from Khabarovsk in eastern Russia. Right: Private Sergei Peskarev, 24, has evidence of his 64th Brigade membership on Facebook. He worked at a supermarket till until November last year, at which point he signed up in anticipation of a war in Ukraine. In February, he got his wish and is now accused of war crimes.
Corporal Dmitry Sergienko (left), 27, lived in Voronezh, south-western Russia. He has a wife and a young daughter. Right: Private Grigory Naryshkin, 30, is another soldier personally accused of war crimes by the Prosecutor General. The athlete and martial artist is also from the far-eastern region of Russia.
Sergeant Nikita Akimov (left), 25, from Komsomolsk in the far east, is accused of personally kidnapping and torturing innocent Buchans. He has a wife and children and has posted pictures throughout the invasion on Facebook. Right: Corporal Mikhail Kashin, 24, comes from Votkinsk, west Russia. According to his social media, he has a wife and several sisters. He spent his birthday allegedly committing war crimes in Bucha.
Private Vasily Knyazev (left), 24, comes from a poverty-stricken family in Yoshkar-Ola, western Russia. He joined the army straight from school and posted photos on Facebook of where the 64th Motorized Brigade was stationed after invading Ukraine. Right: Private Albert Radnaev, 24, joined the army straight from school. His father is also reportedly a soldier in the Russian Army, though it’s unknown whether he has gone to fight in Ukraine.
Junior Sergeant Vyacheslav Lavrentyev (left), 29, was a firefighter in Transbaikal, eastern Russia before signing up to fight in Ukraine. He posted on Facebook: ‘Live one life – save thousands.’ Right: Corporal Semyon Maltsev, 26, is a dancer. He also comes from Russia’s far-eastern region. In February, he stopped touring with his dance company and signed up to fight in Ukraine.
Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova added: ‘We will not stop till we bring each of them to justice.’
The Prosecutor General’s office and news agency Slidstvo scrawled the internet for the ten’s personal information.
Aged between 24 and 33, the corporals, sergeants and privates in the 64th Motorized Brigade are now thought to be fighting in the Donbas.
More than 400 mutilated, tortured and murdered corpses were discovered in Bucha days after reports emerged of widespread war crimes in the Kyiv suburb as Russian troops withdrew.
Last week alleged ringleader the ‘Butcher of Bucha’ Commander Azatbek Omurbekov was promoted from Lieutenant Colonel to full Colonel.
It came despite his men standing accused of gang rapes, tortures and civilian executions.
Soon after receiving the honours, the unit was then redeployed to the eastern Donbas front, one of the most dangerous in the conflict.
Deadly battles are taking place as Moscow’s forces attempt to surround Ukrainian troops who are proving a determined line of defence against Russia’s push from the east.
Analysts say Putin has deliberately sent them to the front lines in order to make them disappear.
That way they could not never be forced to testify over their alleged war crimes.
Ukraine has continued to publish the names of officers and privates responsible for the Bucha massacre.
Putin is said to know they could one day be made to stand trial and reveal the scale of their atrocities.
The intelligence directorate of Ukraine’s MoD said at the start of the month that Russian commanders were refusing to rotate their brigades and that the 64th were in Belgorod in Western Russia ready for redeployment.
Putin then sent them to the front between Kharkiv and Izyum, where fierce Ukrainian fighters were stationed looking to exact revenge on the now infamous brigade.
Images now purport to show destroyed T-80 battle tanks, Kamaz trucks and BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers with corpses lying beside the vehicles after the Donbas drone attacks.
Commander Azatbek Omurbekov (pictured), identified as Putin’s senior commander in Bucha when the barbarism was carried out, was then promoted
One of numerous piles of body bags in Bucha is labelled and the corpses buried, April 8
As Russian forces try to fix an surround Ukrainian units in the east of the country, defenders are still holding out inside the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol while blasts took down TV masts in Kherson overnight and explosions also rocked Transnistria, in Moldova
Most of the soldiers in the unit protested against their redeployment so soon after their campaign in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian news site Hromadske.
They were made to fight the 93rd Ukrainian brigade protecting Kharkiv, who have a fearsome reputation, similar to the neo-Nazi Azov regiment in Mariupol.
Ukraine believes defeating the 64th Brigade would be another huge symbolic victory following the successful strikes inside Russia and the sinking of the Moskva flagship.
It is believed the brigade was assisted by the feared Wagner mercenaries in their savage attacks on Bucha residents.
The shadowy military company, which has been linked to a string of killings, rapes and war crimes around the world, is known as Putin’s private army. It carries out his dirty work at an arm’s length from the state.
Russia has said that images and footage of hundreds of dead bodies strewn across Bucha were fake.
Pro-Putin newspaper Red Star reported: ‘In the course of capturing the designated boundary, the enemy numbering up to a battalion was defeated, and more than 40 pieces of equipment destroyed.
‘The Nationalist unit lost all combat capability and was no longer involved in combat operations.
‘Within three weeks, under the leadership of Colonel Omurbekov, brigade units at the occupied line repelled more than 50 attacks by the enemy using tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and heavy artillery.’
APRIL 3: Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks and cars in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv
Vova, 10, looks at the body of his mother, Maryna, lying in a coffin as his father, Ivan Drahun, prays during her funeral in Bucha last week
Ukrainian officials say the bodies of more than 1,000 civilians have been retrieved from areas around Kyiv, and they are working with French investigators to document alleged war crimes.
Forensic tests carried out on civilian corpses dumped in mass graves show women were raped before being brutally killed, it was revealed on Monday.
Dozens of autopsies have been carried out on mutilated corpses from Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka, with many showing signs of torture and multiple bullet holes in the back.
One coroner north of Kyiv said it is difficult to find signs of rape and sexual abuse because the bodies ‘are in such bad shape’.
A United Nations mission to Bucha documented ‘the unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians there’, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
In the same town, 25 women aged 14 to 25 were kept in a basement and systematically raped, with nine of the women becoming pregnant in a case now recorded by human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova.
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