– I understand that I will go to prison because of this information. Not because of what I did in Ukraine, but because I am telling you these things.
This is what a 21-year-old Russian military journalist said Yekaterina to Fomina.
The soldier was in the village of Andriivka in the Kyiv region when Russian forces occupied the village from the end of February to the beginning of April.
During the occupation, the Russians shot at least 13 civilians in the village.
The Russian online publication of investigative journalists iStories tracked down several soldiers who were in Andriivka. It was successful because the soldiers had taken pictures during the occupation with a stolen phone, which they left in the village when they left.
Finally, one of the soldiers confessed to journalist Fomina that he had shot a civilian in the village.
– This is the first time that a Russian soldier confirms both that he was there and participated in everything and that the Russian army committed war crimes, Fomina tells in a video interview.
In Russia, strict laws have been laid down against smearing the armed forces and fake news – in practice, it is not allowed to tell about the war against the line of the Russian government. Under the laws, you can get a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
Fomina says that she warned the soldier about the consequences. This one still wanted to talk to the reporter.
– They [komentajat] tell us from our front that here we save everyone, we are great. But with whom we are fighting – it is incomprehensible, said the soldier to Fomina.
– Nothing is said about the other fronts and nothing is said about civilian losses. – – And how many civilians die, they [komentajat] hardly even they know.
According to the Ukrainian media, the soldier is also a suspect
has not independently verified the veracity of the information in the article published by iStories. IStories founder and editor-in-chief Roman Anin is a member of the prestigious international network of investigative journalists, ICIJ. The numerous details of the article support its credibility.
In the article and in the documentary video published by iStories, the names of the Russian soldiers suspected of war crimes and their victims are told. Also according to the Ukrainian news site Slidstvo.info, the State Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine suspects the soldier interviewed by journalist Fomina of murdering a civilian.
does not publish the names of private soldiers suspected of crimes or their victims. also does not publish identifiable pictures of soldiers suspected of crimes in this story. For the same reason, the iStories article has not been linked to this story.
“The soldiers dug themselves a hole”
Journalist Yekaterina Fomina traveled to Ukraine in May with the aim of investigating war crimes committed by the Russian army.
He wanted to show that the war crimes revealed in Bucha, Ukraine, were not an exceptional case and that war crimes were committed by only one unit, the infamous 64th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade.
Over the course of three weeks, Fomina visited five villages in the Kyiv region that had been occupied and interviewed about 60 people. He says that he did not encounter any hostility, even though he is a Russian citizen.
Fomina hoped to find similar video recordings that The New York Times used to uncover Butša’s war crimes.
– After only a few days, I realized that the Russian soldiers were not so stupid. After occupying the settlement center, they first broke all the surveillance cameras, Fomina says.
However, Fomina was able to track her down when she met an elderly married couple in the village of Andriivka, whose car had been stolen by Russian soldiers for their own use. The man’s phone was also stolen, but it was later found.
Photos taken by Russian soldiers of themselves were found on the phone.
– It so happened that the Russian soldiers dug a hole for themselves, Fomina says.
The photos showed four soldiers. The editors of IStories found out their identities with the help of open databases, artificial intelligence and various applications. Fomina got in touch with three of the soldiers, and two agreed to talk on the phone.
The soldiers wanted to be heard
Fomina thinks that the soldiers needed to talk. Before him, no one was interested in them.
The war had already been going on for months at that point. Fomina suspects that the men suffer from a trauma-related stress reaction. The soldiers were also afraid that they might have to go to the front again.
One of the soldiers was mainly interested in where Fomina had gotten the photos. The other, a 21-year-old corporal, wanted to talk even more.
– We talked with him for about an hour. After the interview, he asked if I wanted more information. I said of course. He asked to call in a couple of hours, but now with a video connection, Fomina says.
The soldier waited for Fomina to turn on the recording. Then he said he confessed to the war crimes in Andriivka, the shooting and looting of civilians. He also called for punishments for commanders who, according to him, do not treat private soldiers as human beings.
The soldier told how one of the commanders had given an order to get rid of civilians whom the Russians suspected of passing information to the Ukrainian army. The soldier said he shot one Ukrainian man.
Fomina guesses that the soldier wanted to share with someone how he and his comrades were beaten and thrown into the harshest places of battle at the same time as their commanders sat sheltered in the basements.
– He was afraid that he and his fellow soldiers would already be sent to the third front, again in the middle of the battle, again as cannon fodder. He was desperate because he was sure that it would not be possible to survive then, Fomina says.
The fate of the soldiers is open
After the interview, both interviewed soldiers have resigned from the army.
has no information whether they have gotten into trouble with the authorities because of the interviews.
The most difficult situation can be for a soldier who made a confession and accused his commanders by name.
– From a human point of view, I am of course very worried about what will happen to him in the future. Unfortunately, he decided to stay in the country, says journalist Jekaterina Fomina.
Fomina emphasizes that he does not defend the actions of the soldiers. They are war criminals and Russia invaded Ukraine illegally, says Fomina.
He estimates that there is not necessarily any coordinated order behind the war crimes. They are fueled by the culture of impunity prevailing in the army, says Fomina.
In the army and war, people are divided into own and strangers. Aliens are enemies to be killed.
This is what the soldier interviewed by Fomina also thought. He said that he shot the Ukrainian man because, according to him, he had passed on information to the Ukrainian army and his comrades had been wounded by Ukrainian fire.
“We opened Pandora’s box”
Jekaterina Fomina’s employer iStories, Važnye istorii in Russian, has been declared an undesirable organization in Russia. Its editors now work in exile.
The websites of opposition media operating abroad are blocked in Russia so that a VPN connection is needed to access them. The same has happened to large social media services such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
YouTube video service has not been blocked by Russia yet, and iStories has taken advantage of that.
The video report on Andriivka’s events has been viewed more than a million times on YouTube since it was published in mid-August.
According to Fomina, the video has trended specifically in Russia, and the viewers are not iStories’ usual audience.
According to Fomina, what makes the video convincing for young men is that in it their peers talk in their own slang about what happens in the army.
– Our goal was that the video would be watched by at least one or two young guys who dream of serving in the army and that they would reconsider, Fomina says.
He believes that many parents who have seen the video have started to wonder if it is worth letting their children go to war.
– Only commanders who steal and rob and save their own skins win in war, and ordinary guys from remote regions of Russia die in it, Fomina sums up the message conveyed from the interviews.
He says that after the publication of the video, iStories editors have received dozens of new contacts and interviews from Russian army soldiers.
– In that sense, we opened Pandora’s box.
Fomina says that many soldiers begin to feel that something is not right in the situation.
The Russian leadership has still been reluctant to declare a general campaign, and conscripts have not been officially sent to hostilities.
Instead, efforts are being made to supplement the fighting forces in Ukraine with effective recruitment. There have been reports from Russia that people from prisons were also recruited into the army.
Jekaterina Fomina says that joining the army is often the only chance for young men to rise socially.
– But is it really worth it that your mother sends you home in a zinc coffin or that your wife no longer sees you or that your child grows up without a father?