Russian soldiers executed five civilians in the village of Zvanivka, Donetsk region, the Regional Prosecutor’s Office reported Thursday, referencing a Gestapo-like family massacre by Moscow’s occupiers on Oct. 20.
A married couple and their elder son were hiding in the basement of a private house, state-media Ukrinform elaborated, while their younger son had gone to a neighbor’s house to fetch water. Russian soldiers stormed the home and found where the family was hiding and then began interrogating them about the whereabouts of Ukrainian defenders in the village.
After receiving no information, they left, prosecutors described.
Later, one of the occupiers returned to the home and opened fire on the family with an automatic weapon. Believing all three to be dead, he left the scene.
In fact, one person – the mother – survived with a gunshot wound to the jaw.
Worried about her younger son, the official account continued, the wounded mother went to a neighboring basement, where she found his body alongside those of their neighbors – a 62-year-old woman and her 30-year-old son.
The injured woman managed to reach Ukrainian-controlled territory, where she was hospitalized and provided testimony about the war crime committed by Russian forces.
Zvanivka, about 30 km (18 miles) from Bakhmut, has been at the forefront of the war almost since the Kremlin’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February of 2022. It first made Ukrainian headlines in June of that year when Russian troops launched cannon and rocket artillery on civilian targets in the settlement.
In June of 2023, eight residents were injured by further artillery strikes on Zvanivka and the nearby towns of Berdychi and Toretsk.
Perhaps the most infamous scene of brutal Russian troops’ war crimes during their invasion unfolded in Bucha, not far from Kyiv.
On Feb. 25, 2022, Russian forces broke through Ukrainian defenses and advanced on Bucha, carrying out atrocities and murder on the civilian population over the following two weeks.
The number of those killed in Bucha was given by Ukrainian authorities at the end of 2024. The records show that 554 civilians from the city had been killed and another 636 from the surrounding areas – all had died violently from shooting, artillery strikes and torture.
Local law enforcement on Thursday said it has opened criminal proceedings on the Oct 20 massacre in Zvanivka, (under Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). A pre-trial investigation is underway to establish all the circumstances of the war crime and identify the Russian servicemen responsible.