Journalists Identify Russian Soldiers Who Killed Civilians In Kyiv Region

One of them confessed everything.

The journalistic project Important Stories has established the identity of Russian soldiers involved in the killings of local residents in the Kyiv region. One serviceman told the correspondent of the publication about the crimes, and also called the names of the commanders who gave the orders.

The journalists managed to identify the Russian servicemen thanks to 25 photographs taken with a stolen phone of a resident of the village of Andriyivka. An inexpensive smartphone was taken from a 76-year-old resident of the village Leonid Udod. He and his wife Tetyana were able to return their gadget only at the end of May: a resident of Andriyivka found someone else's device among her belongings, and brought it to the humanitarian aid distribution point.

In the photographs, which were later discovered by the owner of the smartphone, four Russian servicemen pose with weapons, smoking pipes, sporting medals on their chests.

According to Important Stories, these are Daniil Frolkin, Dmitry Danilov, Ruslan Glotov and Ivan Shepelenko, servicemen of the 64th motorized rifle brigade.

Many of the villagers interviewed by the journalists recognized the soldiers from these photographs.

Medals, two TVs, a microwave oven, an electric oven and stocks of cat food disappeared from the house where the “photo session” of the Russian soldiers took place. The owner found bullet holes in the ceiling of his brick house, dirty clothes in the barn, a large number of spent cartridges on the lawn, and a sticker on the kitchen table that read “We didn’t want war. March 14.”

In June, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine announced that it suspected soldier Daniil Frolkin of violating the laws and customs of war. According to the Office, he may be guilty of killing a civilian in Andriyivka, stealing a car from another villager, and stealing Soviet and Ukrainian medals from a World War II veteran.

Frolkin himself told Important Stories that he left for “exercises” in Belarus on January 11. According to him, the servicemen did not undergo any special training there, and he learned that they were going to war in Ukraine only on February 23.

“They said that now we will go there for three days to frighten them,” says Dmitry. “The special operation has begun, Luhansk and Donetsk are now recognized as people's republics, they will be included in the Russian Federation, and you will leave from there. Here we are, still leaving from there.”

After the invasion, Frolkin claims, many of his colleagues tried to quit, but no one cold achieve any success in this for a long time.

Initially, Frolkin said that he and his comrades took only “some garbage stuff” from the people’s houses in Andriyivka. The medals, according to him, were put back after the “photo shoot”.

A couple of hours later, he called the journalist back and said:

“I, a soldier of military unit 51460, guard corporal, Frolkin Daniil Andreevich, confess of all the crimes that I committed in Andriyivka, of shooting the civilian population, robbing the civilian population, confiscating their phones and that our command does not give a f**k about our fighters, all the infantry that fights on the front line, at the forefront. And after that, I want to say: take measures to punish the commanders — Omurbekov Azatek Asanbekovich, a guard colonel; guard lieutenant colonel Dmitrenko, commander of our brigade colonel Klobukov, and intelligence chief lieutenant colonel Romanenko. He was in charge of the intelligence service, which conducted some bullshit of a reconnaissance, and led our people to death.

Also, the deputy commander of the brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Prokurat, gave the order to shoot them dead,” Frolkin said.

He spoke about the execution of a villager. Important Stories suggests that this can refer to Ruslan Yaremchuk.

“I understand that I can be imprisoned for all this information,” he says. “Not even for doing all that bullshit in Ukraine. For this information [about the command].

I just want to confess everything and explain what is happening in our country. I think it would be better if there were no war at all,” says Frolkin.

In the first month of the war, several cities and villages in the Kyiv region were under the occupation of the Russian military.

The village of Andriyivka was under the control of the Russian army from late February to early April. In addition to the 13 killed, more than 40 people are still missing in Andriyivka, Important Stories notes.