The Ukrainian news service Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty – RL) has released a recently uncovered CCTV recording from March 2022 that once again definitively shows a war crime being committed on the streets of Bucha, the small city 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Kyiv.
The video shows the moment that 70-year-old Volodymyr Rubailo was shot while walking along on Yablunska Street by a passing Russian patrol, a member of which stops to finish the man off with a shot to the head before rifling through his pockets and removing objects, probably his wallet, from his jacket pocket.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
The killer then joins his comrades, discarding the unwanted items he took from the dead man as he goes. The paratroopers proceed to smash their way through the door of a nearby supermarket and start to remove masses of food and drink in shopping bags, baskets and trolleys.
After loading the bulk of what they have taken into armored vehicles and nearby houses where they were billeted, they “toast” each other with their ill-gotten gains, smoking and chatting as they stand in the street, Rubailo’s body still lying next to them.
They eventually become aware of the closed-circuit security camera that overlooked the scene, and one of the soldiers removes a “sword” from his vehicle and begins to smash the video camera.
Warning: includes distressing scenes
RL reported that the military group involved in the incident were Russian paratroopers from the 234th Air Assault Regiment deployed from the northwestern city of Pskov, who had previously been linked to the torture and murder of civilians in Bucha.
Former President Poroshenko on Ceasefire, 2014 Lessons, Trump, and UN
The report went so far as to identify the leader of the patrol as Sergeant Vladimir Borzunov, who they say was also responsible for rifling through the dead man’s pockets. An RL correspondent is said to have contacted Borzunov, who admitted that Rubailo had been killed by Russian soldiers but denied that either he or his men were involved in this or any other killings of Ukrainian citizens in Bucha.
Investigations into the Bucha massacre continue
On Feb. 25, 2022, Russian forces broke through Ukrainian defenses and advanced on the city of Bucha accompanied by overwhelming artillery bombardment which destroyed much of Bucha’s infrastructure.
Fighting continued for two more weeks before Moscow declared it had gained complete control of the city on March 12. A Ukrainian counteroffensive was then mounted and by March 29 Ukrainian forces regained control of the city – it was then that the true horror of the Russian occupation was revealed.
The damage to the homes, businesses and local authority buildings was immense, a testament to the scale of Russia’s indifference to civilians caught up in its war. Bodies still lay in the streets of the city and mass graves were discovered in park and wooded areas around the city.
The number of those killed 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.
At least 43 bodies currently remain unidentified with 38 more civilians still unaccounted for, of which more than 30 are suspected of being held in Russia.
The Russian Ministry of Defense continues to deny the involvement of any of its forces in the mass killings of civilians in Bucha, despite the evidence presented in this and many other videos along with eyewitness accounts, claiming: “not a single local resident suffered from any violent actions” while Russian troops were “present” in the city. President Vladimir Putin says the claims of mass executions are “fake news” and a “Western provocation.”
An edited version of this latest video was published by RFE/RL in June of this year, but this is the first time that the full version has been made public.
You can also highlight the text and press Ctrl + Enter
