"People were lying on the road, slowly dying": notices of suspicion served for shooting evacuation convoy in Irpin

The National Police of Ukraine has notified three Russian occupiers that they are under suspicion for firing on civilians in Kyiv Oblast.

Source: press service of the National Police of Ukraine

Details: According to the investigation, Russian soldiers opened fire on 10 vehicles in Oleh Koshovyi Street and Nezalezhnosti Street in the town of Irpin in Kyiv Oblast on 5-6 March 2022, killing nine civilians who were trying to evacuate and injuring 12 more.

So far, the police have identified three Russian soldiers who were involved in the shooting of the evacuation convoy.

The suspects are the commander of the reconnaissance group of the 173rd Separate Reconnaissance Battalion and two soldiers from the 137th Guards Airborne Regiment of the 106th Guards Airborne Division.

The soldiers are now suspected of violating the laws and customs of war and premeditated murder.

The police have collected evidence from the surviving victims and reconstructed the horrific events of a year ago.

On 6 March 2022 at 07:30, residents of the Versal Park residential complex decided to evacuate. They started gathering those willing to evacuate, as well as 12 civilian cars, as not all the residents had vehicles. People affixed pieces of paper with "Children" and "Evacuation" written on them to their cars to indicate that these were civilian vehicles.

Quote from Ivan Dulkai, special investigator of the National Police of Ukraine: "The first vehicle in the evacuation convoy was an Audi A5, with a driver and a family with an 18-month-old child inside. A grenade was launched on the vehicle, which caused the right front part of it to explode. The driver was killed instantly. One passenger lay on the ground for a long time dying from their injuries. A woman and child were not seriously injured and managed to survive.

After the first car was blown up, the four cars following it tried to move forward, but under heavy fire, the drivers hit obstacles, stopped and found themselves in a trap.

The occupiers could see clearly and were aware that these were civilians who did not pose any threat, but they continued shooting at them anyway…

After firing on the vehicles, the Russian soldiers took everyone who was able to walk to a house they had seized and kept them there for several hours. After a while, the occupiers decided to let the survivors go, but would not allow them to evacuate those with serious injuries, who were lying on the ground and slowly dying, or to take the dead bodies away with them… Other vehicles from the convoy managed to stop on time, turn around and save themselves from the Russian attack…

The occupiers’ atrocities and ill-treatment of civilians no longer surprise anyone. But what they did to people will leave no one indifferent. The main task of the law enforcement agencies is to identify war criminals and prosecute them in both Ukrainian and international courts."

Details: The investigators have also identified 20 more soldiers from the 137th Guards Airborne Regiment and 173rd Separate Guards Reconnaissance Battalion of the 106th Guards Airborne Division.

Therefore, after all the evidence of their involvement in war crimes has been collected, the occupiers will be served with notices of suspicion in conjunction with the Prosecutor General’s Office.

They are likely to receive sentences up to and including life imprisonment for murder, rape, torture and looting.

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