Investigators finish their work in Irpin: new victims of the Russian military have been found

Svitlana Kizilova - Tuesday, 3 May 2022, 20:04

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has reported that the first stage of the investigation in Irpin - an inspection of the sites of Russian war crimes committed in the city - is complete. Two more burial places of local people executed by Russian troops have been found.

Source: Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, cited by the Prosecutor General’s Office on Telegram

Quote: "228 witnesses have been questioned so far. Most of them are local residents who had not managed to evacuate and who were direct witnesses to the crimes. Thanks to their testimonies, it was possible to establish the chronology of events, as well as the circumstances of the aggressor army’s atrocities against the civilian population. Impunity makes the Russian aggressors defiant. However, there is no place for impunity in the modern world. We are working to find and punish every war criminal."

Details: Iryna Venediktova stressed that the Prosecutor General’s Office, along with investigators from the National Police and State Bureau of Investigation, are conducting a comprehensive operation in Irpin.

She also added that law enforcement officers had collected evidence of 7 executions of civilians and their burial places.

The identities of 5 local residents were verified during the examination of their bodies: these people were shot in the yard of the high-rise building on Bilokur Street and on the premises of the Super-ditky Children's Development Centre.

The inspection also confirmed that a tank fired on a private car, which a woman, her 12-year-old son and probably also a man were using in an attempt to evacuate from the city. The remains of their bodies had been buried by locals in "Mother" Park.

"Experts have now started working in Irpin. They will determine the damage, the weapons used to inflict it, the places and directions of use of weapons and military equipment. The results of these examinations, the evidence we have gathered of the undisputed presence of Russian troops in the town, the conclusions of forensic experts, and the testimonies of witnesses and victims will make it possible to identify the perpetrators. The list of Russian soldiers stationed in Irpin is already at the disposal of investigative bodies and the prosecutor's office. The first suspected soldiers of the aggressor country have been established. The work is ongoing", Iryna Venediktova said.

She clarified that a soldier of the 234th Air Assault Regiment of the Russian armed forces, who together with his fellow soldiers took 10 men prisoner in Irpin, had been notified that he is under suspicion of committing a crime. The aggressors kept prisoners in the basement, took away their mobile phones, and beat the prisoners’ ribs and legs with gun-butts. The aggressors threatened the prisoners with murder and imitated execution and deprived them of food and water. There was a woman among the victims - the Russian soldiers abused her by shooting in the direction of her legs. One of the executioners was identified with the help of documents provided to the investigation by the victims.