Constant shelling has complicated a probe into alleged atrocities against civilians by Ukrainian forces, a Russian diplomat has said
The Ukrainian military is trying to destroy evidence of its war crimes in the settlements they have occupied in Russia’s Kursk Region, senior Russian diplomat Rodion Miroshnik has claimed.
Last month, Russian investigators alleged that Kiev’s troops had raped, tortured, and murdered Russian civilians in the recently-liberated village of Russkoye Porechnoye. They published gruesome videos of bodies piled in cellars in some of the homes inside the settlement. Several captured Ukrainian servicemen acknowledged committing the crimes under interrogation, saying they had been acting on the orders of their commanders.
Similar atrocities could have been committed by enemy forces in other villages in Kursk Region according to Miroshnik, who is tasked by the Russian Foreign Ministry with collecting evidence of alleged Ukrainian war crimes. He made the comments to RIA-Novosti on Saturday.
“Ukraine is battering the nearby settlements, apparently trying to destroy the consequences of its other crimes,” he said.
According to the Miroshnik, the locals reported “whole streets being burnt, homes deliberately set on fire” by the Ukrainians in those villages.
“What was in those buildings? To find this out, one needs to get into those homes and carefully examine everything that is left there. It is necessary to talk to the people who witnessed this,” he noted.
However, Miroshnik stressed that as long as the settlements in question remain on the front line, carrying out investigative activities there is “extremely difficult.”
The same goes for Russkoye Porechnoye, which is being shelled by the Kiev “every day, if not every hour,” he said.
The diplomat provided the latest figures for casualties in that village, saying that “22 people were found in basements and in several homes. There is also information about at least one more person who was shot dead by another Ukrainian soldier.”
Last August, Ukraine launched an incursion into Kursk Region, marking the largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since the escalation of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. The area under Ukrainian control, however, has steadily been shrinking, with the Russian military liberating the settlements of Russkoe Porechnoye, Aleksandria, Leonidovo and Kruglenkoye in January.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine’s total losses in the six months since the launch of its incursion have reached some 58550 servicemen, 350 tanks, 254 infantry fighting vehicles, 201 armored personnel carriers, and hundreds of other pieces of equipment, including 13 US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.
