Rocket and missile attacks rained down on dozens of peaceful cities. Ukrainians, who were about to start a new working day, began a different life, when the Russian Federation started up an all-out war against our country and all the Ukrainian people on February 24, 2022.
Not the life they planned to live saving their loved ones and their country, but a hard life in the army, a life of survival in evacuation. There was no wide choice as an evil, insidious enemy had come to the Ukrainian land with the war
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Two months into the war, there have been over 2,200 civilians killed and almost 3,000 wounded. The war has taken the lives of 208 children and left 387 injured. The two months of war with Russia have forced every fourth Ukrainian out of their home; 7.1 million people have become internally displaced and 5 million more fled to other countries.
Russians themselves -- prisoners of war, those who were not forced to open their eyes until when they had found themselves in the hell of fierce Ukrainian resistance – are testifying on who is to blame for unleashing the war in Ukraine. They happened to be more fortunate than those from among the 21,000+ invaders who have fertilized the Ukrainian black earth and can only be silent reproach to those who sent them to fight in Ukraine. Now the floor goes to those of the invaders who were lucky to survive and be captured (there are over 700 of them so far).
Evgeny Spiridonov, Police Captain, member of riot police unit, Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo oblast, Russia
On February 24th, 2022, a criminal order was given to move into Ukraine.
Who gave the order?
The order came from our staff officers, who took it from the government, that is from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
In coordination with and support from the armed forces of the Russian Federation, we were supposed to move into Ukrainian capital Kyiv, and by all means assist them in the seizure of the capital. After the seizure, we were supposed to suppress any unlawful actions by Ukrainian civilians in every possible way, not excluding arrests, physical compulsion, or execution by shooting.
It is stated that there were allegedly some, how to say, surgical interventions of missile units destroying some kind ofmilitary units somewhere - it is all falsehood.
Every single night sirens are heard.
There are the same people here, everyone wants to live -
kids, mothers.
Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Astakhov, senior security officer, special rapid response unit (SOBR), Rosgvardia, Kemerovo oblast
We were told that supposedly on the territory of Ukraine... well, back when we were still in Russia, the media...were saying that a fascist regime was dominating in Ukraine, that Nazi nationalists had seized power and ordinary people should be helped to slip the collar. Of course we had our doubts, we didn't fully understand the situation.
But when we …I personally came here ... I will tell the truth ... I am very ashamed of it. Because my grandpa fought in war, and now I turn out to be the punisher.
These are my personal words addressed to Russian military service members. If my words reach them, God willing.
Guys, please... how do I say it, well... have courage, in short, well…. It must be hard for you to go against your commander's wishes and so on.
But what's really going on here is genocide. Genocide... Basically, a nation, the Ukrainian nation is being annihilated here..
Major Alexandr Krasnoyartsev, 1st rank pilot, chief of aerial, firing, and tactical training; 2nd mixed air regiment, 21st mixed air division, Russian Aerospace Forces (Shagol airbase, Cheliabinsk)
On March 5th, I and my co-crew, Major Krivolapov flew strike missions against targets in the Chernihiv area.
While performing the mission I was shot down. My co-pilot, the navigator, died on crash. I was taken prisoner. They captured me near the city of Chernihiv, they were moving me across the city showing the targets we had hit, civilian targets.
I am pleading with my colleagues from the Seshcha airbase in Bryansk oblast -Lieutenant-Colonel Boris Gubin, Major Dmitry Runev, Major Nechaev, Captain Gubaidulin, Captain Savenko, Captain Klishnin, Major Gabitov, Major Khitrov, Captain Strizhakov, Major Gatarov, Captain Ustyantsev, Captain Fakhraziev, Senior Lieutenant Lukinykh, Captain Koretsky, Senior Lieutenant Kursanin, Captain Pavlov, Captain Kurlenkov -- to stop strikes on civilian targets on the territory of Ukraine.
The Su-34 strikes with OFAB-100-120 bombs, which are not precision weapons. I appeal to you to stop carrying out strikes on the territory of Ukraine.
Lt.-Col. Maxim Krishtop, second-in-command of the 47th Bombardment Aviation Regiment, Russian Aerospace Forces
I flew my first combat mission on February 24, 2022 against enemy troops located to the south of Balakleya. I dropped a load of high-explosive aerial bombs weighing total 3t. The target was successfully hit.
The second combat mission was flown on March 3, 2022 with the same combat load of three tonnes of high-explosive bombs.The target was an enemy’s armored column located near Izyum. Similarly - the target was hit.
The third combat flight was flown on March 6, 2022. There were four tons of high-explosive aerial bombs on board.
During the flight I saw I was bombarding not enemy military facilities, but residential buildings and civilians. Still I’d carried out the criminal order. After the bombs had been dropped, I was shot down by Ukrainian air defense forces. On landing I was captured by the National Guard of Ukraine.
I recognize the enormity of the crimes I’d committed. A terrible order.
Major Alexey Golovensky, aviation squadron commander, Independent Maritime Assault Aviation Regiment:
- Question:
There were media reports that your mother lives in Ukraine. Is that true? And how does it feel like to bombard the country where your mother lives?
- Yes, I’ve always had relatives in Poltava oblast.
Moreover, my wife even has relatives living in Kharkiv.
I was shocked when I was shown the city and how it has been cleaned out.
I have no contact with anyone. I can't even imagine
what or where is there. And where the relatives are.
Colonel Maxim Krishtop, second-in-command, 47th Bombardment Aviation Regiment, Russian Aerospace Forces:
Had we not been shot down, we would continue performing combat missions. We are military men. The amount and scope of destruction horrifies me more and more.
Those facts, horrible facts of destruction… I’m talkingnot only about Kharkiv, but also about other cities, such as Mariupol… where objects are being struck; such a scope of destruction in Kharkiv wasn’t seen even during World War II. It is just horrifying. The city of Kharkiv ceases to exist under the strikes of the Russian armed forces.
Prisoner of war, Russian army platoon leader interviewed by a detective of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU):
Q: What was the task given to you?
- To capture the city of Kharkiv. Occupy all major roads. Block civilian exits and occupy the city.
Q: What other tasks were given?
- To open fire on the resistance and all the city’s inhabitants..
Q: Was there an order to fire on civilians?
- Yes.
Q: Facilities?
- Including residential buildings.
Q: How much time you did you plan for taking Kharkiv?
- Three days.
Q: Did you know you were moving to Ukraine?
- Yes, I did.
Q: What were you told? Moving to do what?
- Peacekeepers.
Q: For what purpose?
- To liberate Ukraine from the Nazis, so to speak.
Q: What were your further tasks after taking the city?
- The further tasks were to advance further.
Background information for your knowledge:
Russia’s original invasion plan, aimed, especially, at simultaneous seizure of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa to secure a change of government in Ukraine, has failed. Russia has repositioned the major part of its troops to eastern Ukraine in order to occupy the entire territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and to provide a land bridge to Crimea via Mariupol, preferably by May 9. The large-scale ground operation in Donbas has begun. In the meantime, Russia continues delivering air-to-ground attacks with bombs and missiles on military and civilian infrastructures elsewhere in Ukraine.
The Russian troops continue intense bombardments of residential areas in cities such as Kharkiv, Mariupol, Mykolaiv, and many more others located along the front line, using air strikes and heavy artillery. Since the day the war started, Russia has launched hundreds of missiles and artillery attacks on residential areas across Ukraine. Dozens of innocent civilians are killed and wounded every day, and approximately 220,000 people have lost their homes.
Documents and maps seized by Ukrainian troops from Russian prisoners of war, as well as intercepted communications reveal that bombardments and shelling of civilian residential areas are of deliberate nature.
Lots of towns occupied or attacked by Russian troops have been destroyed almost completely, and cannot be rebuilt until the war ends.
According to President Zelenskyy, Russian attacks have killed dozens thousands civilians in Ukrainian cities and towns, and >500,000 Ukrainian citizens have been subject to forced relocation. Forcible relocation to Russia has continued.
324 health maintenance centers, 300 day nurseries, >8,000 km of roads and 300 bridges have been destroyed or damaged by the Russian troops; 99 educational institutions have been destroyed to ashes and 1,042 more sustained severe damage (according to statistics available for April 19). Airports, fuel stations and oil refineries, food warehouses and water reservoirs continue to be bombarded by heavy artillery and airstrikes. >7,000 residential buildings and 59 religious buildings have been damaged or fully destroyed.
While withdrawing from formerly occupied Ukrainian territories, Russian troops plant mines leaving them everywhere, even in children’s toys. According to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, about 300,000 square kilometers of Ukraine's territory need to be cleared of mines left by the Russian occupiers.
In Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiiv, >420 people, every fifth of those who didn’t flee their homes in the face of Russian occupation, had been killed, and 85% of the bodies found so far died of bullet wounds and were clearly deliberately shot to death. In the nearby towns of Borodianka and Hostomel, hundreds civilians went missing, were killed or wounded. The massacre committed by the Russian military reveals the true hatred they have for Ukrainians and amounts to war crimes. Ukraine’s task force investigators are working documenting the crimes and identifying all those involved.
Almost 8,000 crimes of aggression and war crimes have been documented by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in cooperation with international investigative teams,
Criminals will not escape punishment for the atrocities they committed in Ukraine - they are facing a fair international criminal court. Let these testimonies - the testimonies by Russian military service members – become part of the evidence base and help that the truth about the atrocities committed by Russian war criminals in Ukraine and by those who gave them orders, become public in the aggressor country and throughout the world as soon as possible,.
*Video compiled by Svitlana Shcherbak (Defense Express Media & Consulting Company, Kyiv, Ukraine) using open source data and reports
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