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Ukraine Identifies Russian Commander Behind Execution of Three Civilians in Kupiansk

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Dariia Mykhailenko
News Writer
Ukraine Identifies Russian Commander Behind Execution of Three Civilians in Kupiansk
Ukraine's security service officers secure the St. George Cathedral during a search operation of the premises of religious sites in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on December 14, 2022. (Source: Getty Images)

A Russian commander has been identified as the officer who ordered the execution of three civilians in Kupiansk on October 2.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on October 9, the perpetrator is Russian national Andrey Sirotyuk, commander of the 121st Brigade of the 68th Motorized Rifle Division of Russia’s 6th Combined Arms Army.

The SBU said that, in an attempt to spread panic in the frontline city, Russian soldiers disguised themselves in civilian clothes and infiltrated the outskirts of Kupiansk posing as local residents. They then opened fire at close range, killing two men and a woman who were trying to evacuate deeper into Ukrainian territory.

SBU investigators are conducting a criminal probe under Part 2 of Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code—violations of the laws and customs of war resulting in civilian deaths.

The agency is also collecting and documenting evidence for submission to the International Criminal Court. The investigation is being carried out under the procedural supervision of the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Earlier, Ukraine’s National Police charged two members of the so-called “ministry of state security of the DPR” for torturing and sexually assaulting a Ukrainian woman in occupied Donetsk.

Between 2021 and 2022, the perpetrators broke into the apartment of a mother of two, abducted her, and held her for over a month in the notorious “Izolyatsia” prison—a former insulation materials plant that Russian forces turned into a torture site.

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