Collaborator from Luhansk whose sister survived Irpin’s occupation ordered to kill writer Vakulenko

Journalists of the Slidstvo.Info investigative outlet have found that Vladyslav Neskorodiev,  who goes by the alias of Lev and is a collaborator from Luhansk, was involved in the murder of children's writer and poet Volodymyr Vakulenko in Kapitolivka, Izium district, during the occupation of Kharkiv Oblast. Neskorodiev's family members live both in occupied territories and in Kyiv Oblast. Source: Slidstvo.Info

Details: A week ago, law enforcement officers reported that they had identified two soldiers from Luhansk Oblast who were suspected of killing Volodymyr Vakulenko and three other men. V. Neskorodiev and S.

Udodenko were served with a notice of suspicion. Neskorodiev goes by the alias Lev (Lion) and is the commander of one of the companies of the so-called Luhansk People's Republic [a self-proclaimed and non-recognised formation in Luhansk Oblast, backed by Russia - ed.]. Udodenko is a machine gunner who goes by the alias Udod (Hoopoe).

Both are natives of the currently occupied city of Luhansk.

Slidstvo.Info journalists found Vladyslav Neskorodiev's sister and aunt and talked to them. In the spring of 2022, the Russian military, led by Neskorodiev, repeatedly came to the writer Vakulenko's house. The investigation materials state that the Russian military abducted the writer along with his teenage son, who has a disability. 

Despite a day of torture, Vakulenko refused to cooperate with the Russians, and they first returned him and his son home, but a white car with the Z letter on it was again parked in Vakulenko's yard two days later (the Z letter is one of the most recognisable symbols of the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine; the Russians often put such marks on their armoured vehicles - ed.). Collaborator Neskorodiev ordered the soldiers to forcefully drag Vakulenko out of the house. The Russian military also took his backpack with Ukrainian military patches of Ukrainian Armed Forces units on it.

A few days later, locals found the backpack in Kapitolivka, a 15-minute drive from Izium.  Neskorodiev supposedly ordered soldier Udodenko to shoot Vakulenko. And Udodenko killed the writer with three shots, before breaking his fingers.

Vakulenko's body was identified among those recovered during the exhumation in November 2022.  Slidstvo.Info found Vladyslav Neskorodiev's page on the Russian social network Odnoklassniki (Classmates). He is 33 years old, has a wife Lina, and a 7-year-old daughter.

The family decided not to leave occupied Luhansk. Slidstvo.Info called Neskorodiev, but his Ukrainian number turned out to be no longer in service.  And Vladyslav's sister Siuzanna, who moved to Irpin, Kyiv Oblast, after the occupation of Luhansk in 2014, heard about the war crimes her brother is suspected of committing for the first time during a conversation with journalists.

Quote from Siuzanna: "You're telling me this now, and my heart just started pounding. I don't know this whole story at all... We are from Luhansk.

I left back in 2014. But my brother stayed there, and I don't even know where he is, what's going on with him... I was shocked when I heard from my grandmother what had happened there, in Luhansk.

It was a shock for me, I couldn't believe it." Details: Siuzanna said that when Russian troops occupied Kyiv Oblast, she did not have time to leave with her children to a safe place, so she waited for Irpin to be liberated in the basement of her house. Her family survived the occupation in Irpin.

Their house in Irpin survived, but the windows were smashed. Now they have moved to another house. Siuzanna had a falling out with her brother, so she doesn't keep in touch with him: "We haven't spoken to him for 7 years.

I don't even know where he is, what's going on with him. We've always had a bad relationship. The last time we saw each other was in 2014, when we were in Luhansk."

She said she did not know that her brother had sided with the Russians: "He was working on construction sites, helping my aunt and uncle. I don't know anything else about him. My family stayed in Luhansk: my brother Oleksandr Kovalov and my mother.

My aunt stayed because my grandmother said she would not leave. I can't answer for the rest of them, I don't know why they decided to stay. Everyone decides for themselves."

Siuzanna reiterated that she hates the Russian army and that she herself "would never have switched to the Russian side".  Instead, Neskorodiev's aunt, Nataliia Kovalova, who lives in Luhansk, is happy with the occupation and does not hide her affection for Vladimir Putin and the Russian army on Odnoklassniki.  In a conversation with journalists, Kovalova said that she had also quarrelled with her nephew, but was convinced that Neskorodiev was not capable of killing a civilian because she had raised him since childhood.

"Vladyslav would never be able to kill any civilian, and I know that for sure. I raised him from childhood, he is not that kind of person. So whatever the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office publishes is their problem.

I don't believe it, and I will never believe it," said Nataliia, who is also convinced that "the Russian army is protecting Ukrainians" and that "American mercenaries" serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine suspects Vladyslav Neskorodiev of organising the murder of three more civilians in Izium: Ivan Shabelnyk, Ukrainian combat veteran Yurii Kavun and Leonid Taran.  Neskorodiev's whereabouts are currently unknown.

In Ukraine, he faces imprisonment for a term of 8 to 12 years (Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

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