The Security Service of Ukraine has issued notices of suspicion in absentia to five more Russian servicemen implicated in the shooting of three Ukrainian prisoners of war in Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, in the summer of 2024.
This was reported by the SBU.
According to the investigation, all five suspects served in the 82nd Motor Rifle Regiment of the Russian army’s 69th Motor Rifle Division.
They include battalion commander Major Oleg Dorokhov, call sign “Raccoon”, who, investigators say, ordered the prisoners to be killed, and Private Mikhail Pasenko (“Handsome”), who relayed those orders to the perpetrators.
Suspicions were also announced against Junior Sergeant Georgiy Tarnopolsky (“Cat”), whom investigators consider the direct perpetrator of the killing of two Ukrainian defenders, and Privates Ruslan Kabanov (“Koba”) and Vladislav Bortsov (“Voodoo”), who, according to investigators, provided cover for the perpetrators during the shooting of the two prisoners.
According to the case materials, in June 2024 Russian troops interrogated a Ukrainian defender in the occupied area of the Vovchansk Aggregate Plant, after which they took him to a checkpoint near the administrative building and killed him with a shot to the head.
About two weeks later, the Russians captured two more Ukrainian soldiers. They were brought to the plant, interrogated and tied to poles inside the administrative building.
On 3 July 2024, according to investigators, the bound defenders were taken to an outbuilding and shot in the back of the head.
Earlier, on the basis of SBU materials, Russian citizen Sergey Tuzhilov, call sign “Altai”, was sentenced to life imprisonment. According to investigators, he personally killed one Ukrainian prisoner of war and helped organise the killings of two others.
All five individuals were notified of suspicion in absentia under Part 2 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — violation of the laws and customs of war combined with premeditated murder. The actions of two of them were additionally classified as aiding and abetting a crime committed by a group of persons acting in prior conspiracy.
The SBU says it is continuing efforts to bring the suspects to justice. The investigation is being conducted by officers of the SBU directorate in Kharkiv region under the procedural supervision of the regional prosecutor’s office.