Journalists identify two Russian soldiers involved in rape during occupation of Kyiv and Kherson oblasts – video

Kyiv Independent journalists have identified two Russian soldiers who were involved in raping two women during the occupation of Kyiv and Kherson oblasts in March 2022. Source: investigative documentary He Came Back by Kyiv Independent Details: One of the men is Nikolai Senenko, a soldier of the 109th Motorised Rifle Regiment belonging to the so-called "Armed Forces" of the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast.

He took part in the occupation of the village of Krasnivka (Kherson Oblast).

The film also features Nadbit Dabayev, a yefreytor (OR-4 in the NATO-rank system) in the 8th Company of the 37th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade. He took part in the occupation of the village of Havronshchyna (Kyiv Oblast). The journalists found that neither of the identified Russian servicemen have been punished for the crime.

In June 2022, Ukrainian law enforcement officers served Nadbit Dabayev with a notice of suspicion in absentia for a number of other war crimes committed during the occupation: carjacking, death threats and murder of a civilian.

Dabayev refused to answer direct questions from journalists about his involvement in the crimes, including sexual violence. He continues to post photos of himself in military uniform and with weapons on his social media accounts. Based on information from Nikolai Senenko's comrades-in-arms, to whom a journalist of Kyiv Independent spoke to under the guise of being a Russian investigator, the soldier is currently in the occupied city of Horlivka (Donetsk Oblast).

Additionally, the investigation uncovered the names of the commanders to whom the Russian soldiers reported and under whose control they operated. The 37th Brigade was led by Colonel Yuri Medvedev. His brigade committed some of the most brutal war crimes during the occupation of Kyiv Oblast.

Ukraine served the brigade's soldiers with notices of suspicion in absentia for murder, rape, torture, and threats to shoot civilians. Medvedev was injured in March 2022. But a few months later, he delivered a speech at the 9 May Victory Day parade in Buryatia and subsequently received one of Russia's highest state awards, the Order of Courage. [9 May is when Russia celebrates Victory Day, a holiday commemorating the 1945 victory over Nazism - ed.]

The 109th Regiment of the so-called "Armed Forces" of the occupied part of Donetsk Oblast may have been subordinated to the 11th Air Assault Brigade of Russia's Armed Forces, led by Colonel Denis Shishov. Shishov participated in the capture of Kherson Oblast and was wounded. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of major general and awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

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